LABOUR are facing stiff criticism amid reports that internal rules will be tweaked to block grassroots attempts to discuss issues such as Brexit at the party conference.
Other issues which could be embarrassing for party leader Keir Starmer – such as his support for the Tories’ the two-child benefit cap and refusal to back electoral reform – are also set to be blocked by the rule change, reports in the New Statesman say.
The new rule from party leadership and set to be approved by the ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) will prevent any conference motions being discussed if they are not “contemporary”.
The New Statesman reported Labour sources as saying the “contemporary” wording would cut out conference debates over policy which the party leadership has already decided.
But the move has seen criticism from both within and outwith the party.
Momentum, a left-wing group within Labour, said the rule change was “yet another attack on the rights of Labour members from a Starmer leadership which is patently hostile to party democracy”.
It added: “From parliamentary selections to policymaking, the anti-democratic clique at the top of the party views members not as the lifeblood of the party, but as a problem to be managed.
“It’s clear they want to take Labour back to the bad old days of a small elite casting down decisions from on high.”
The SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown (below) said that Starmer’s “Tory-lite agenda has left any notion of a Labour Party that stands up for ordinary people dead in the water”.
He went on: “Now, it seems, Labour are hellbent on shutting down anyone getting in the way of their race to the right.
“From Brexit to Scotland’s right to choose its own future, Labour have continually denied the voice of people across Scotland so their denial of democracy at their own party conference is not surprising.
“The SNP will always be a party that embraces democracy and celebrates ideas about how we can create a fairer, greener, more prosperous society for everyone as an independent country.”
Labour will be holding their party conference in Liverpool from Sunday, October 8 to Wednesday, October 11.
The SNP will hold their conference the following weekend, from Sunday, October 15 to Tuesday, October 17 at the Event Complex in Aberdeen.
