A report from Labour’s Emergency National Executive Committee on 25th June 2026 from left CLP reps Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton and Yasmine Dar.

The NEC met in an extraordinary meeting yesterday, to agree the timetable for the Labour leadership election.

The timeline put forward and agreed by the NEC will likely mean the contest is concluded by 16th July, with no opportunity for debate or discussion on the direction of the Party. Labour MPs will nominate from Thursday 9th July to Wednesday 15th July, and affiliated organisations will be able to nominate within a 24 hour window from 15th July. 

This essentially entirely excludes members and CLPs from the leadership process. They will not be able to make a nomination and, as it looks increasingly likely that Andy Burnham will be the only candidate on the ballot, they will not get a vote. 

It is clear that members from across the Labour Party want to see a Labour government delivering which will genuinely address the cost of living crisis, support public services and make sure Labour is once again focused on delivering transformative change, but this does not mean that members should have no say in the process of who should lead the Party.

Left CLP reps called for the Party to change the proposals so CLPs were included and warned that we cannot continue down this route, where members are routinely sidelined. 

CLP rep Jess Barnard said: “It is down to the hard work of members on the ground that Labour were able to win the by-election in Makerfield, it is a kick in the teeth to members that they have been completely sidelined in this process. If Andy is serious about change, we need to see an end to the norm of shutting members out of Party democracy going forward.”

CLP rep Gemma Bolton proposed an extension to the timetable of two weeks, which would provide an opportunity for CLPs to meet, have discussions about the way forward and nominate, but this proposal was rejected. 

It was highlighted by left NEC reps that the decision to allow a small window for affiliate nominations, but not for CLPs, would be divisive and unfair for members. Attempts were made by some to portray this as ‘anti-union’, despite no-one suggesting unions should not be able to nominate. Some NEC members suggested that Labour members are already getting a say, via their union being able to nominate. This of course does not account for anyone whose union is not affiliated to the Labour party, such as teachers in the NEU, railway workers in the RMT and civil servants in the PCS. It also seems unlikely that unions will be balloting their members to contribute to their nominations.

CLP reps reiterated the need for equality for both our union affiliates and our CLPs, and the need, if Labour is to rebuild support, to listen to members, trade unions and socialist societies. We wholeheartedly rejected any attempts to argue for or set a precedent to row back the rights of members, which includes arguing that members already have a say via unions, therefore don’t need their own democratic processes. Jess highlighted that these kinds of arguments could see members lose OMOV ballots, policy votes at Conference, representatives within party structures, votes in selections of candidates and more.  

The Labour Party is proudly made up of both affiliates and members, and any attacks against the rights of either sections of the Party should be opposed.

Some reassurances were offered by the Party, but ultimately the NEC voted to move ahead with the original timetable despite our opposition.

It is clear that moving forward, we have an uphill struggle to put member democracy back on the agenda and prevent the steady decline of members’ rights in the Party. Members have been clear that they expect to see change and will not accept Starmerism 2.0. We look forward to working with the new leadership, while also holding them to account, to put member democracy at the top of the agenda.

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/