There are two key reasons for Labour’s dire performance in London’s local elections. One was the failings of Keir Starmer’s government. The second was the appalling damage to our Party by the factional antics of the Labour Together clique that currently runs our Party. Both need addressing.

To combat this hyper-factionalism, a broad coalition of progressives have come together to run for London’s Regional Executive Committee. Their full statement is below.

Emine Ibrahim, who is running on the slate as a London-wide candidate, said: “Help us pull the London Labour Party back from the edge. The devastating results in local elections is a wake-up call to activists that we have to change course. Get to your CLP meetings and vote to restore our Party democracy.”

Running alongside her is Jumbo Chan, a highly effective Brent councillor for ten years who was blocked from being a Labour candidate in this month’s local elections by a factionally motivated Campaign Improvement Board. Its decision to impose all candidates without any democratic selections in the borough lost Labour majority control.  He said: “The hyper-factionalism that has captured the Labour Party has caused huge damage. This is why we have come together to campaign to restore party democracy and our historic pluralism, and by returning Labour to our roots, put us back on a path to regain public confidence.”

Labour’s former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP endorsed the effort: “This is a valuable initiative to restore political balance to the Labour Party in London. Restoring a broad church approach to end the aggressive factionalism is exactly what’s needed if we are to bring the party together to defeat Reform.”

Freddie Seale, who is running in Division 7, said: “If Labour is going to win again in London, it needs to change. London Labour must ditch the sectarian student politics of Labour2Win, or we’ll keep losing. That’s why I’m standing for the Regional Executive Committee alongside the colleagues below.”

Also running in Division 7 is Dr Rathi Guhadasan, the dynamic Chair of the Socialist Health Association, who has campaigned tirelessly against the ongoing creeping privatisation of the NHS.

The different Labour traditions consulted by the initiative include Momentum, Mainstream and other organisations. Members are asked to back the Divisional candidates at their CLP meetings before June 19th ahead of the London Regional Conference on 18th and 19th July.

Image: https://thebluediamondgallery.com/finger01/c/committee.html License: Creative Commons 3 – CC BY-SA 3.0 Attribution Link: Pix4free.org – link to – https://pix4free.org/ Original Author: Nick Youngson – link to – http://www.nyphotographic.com/