Over and beyond the debates about the merits of membership of a political party, there is a greatly underdiscussed issue concerning those who want to be in a political party but are prevented from playing a role.
I am focusing on the Labour Party because it is the one that I know, for good or bad, but far more importantly because it has been the leading party in the make-up of the Welsh government ever since a devolved government was created.
Currently, I see little to gain and many dangers from the almost continuous chatter about the prospects for a new Left party, much stoked from time to time by a kind of “waiting for Jeremy” network.
But, those in the Labour Party who share my scepticism should pay far more attention to those who have been prevented from being members.
The very simple question is: what should they do?
We could recite a number of rhetorical questions to illustrate the point: Join another party? Stop thinking and caring about politics?
The letter that follows comes from one of three members in the Caerfyddin CLP. They all received a notice of suspension at the same time, and none of them have heard a word since.
Let’s be as polite as we can about this. Surely it cannot be the case that the relevant party bodies have had no time to look at this. The three comrades had between them over 120 years of membership of the Party. At the very least, they have been treated with dreadful discourtesy.
What is an uncontentious fact is that the suspensions arose from a hustings meeting called to select the candidate for the last general election. There were around 45 members in the room, and whoever made a complaint against these three must have been in the room, so there were plenty of witnesses to any misconduct—if there was any.
Sadly, this kind of arbitrary treatment is by no means unique in Wales or the rest of the UK.
It is the case that the conduct of this selection was extremely controversial. A number of members of the Selection Committee had expressed a number of concerns about the way that Wales Labour officials had mishandled the whole process and shown serious discourtesy to the committee.
Another example of the same methodology was the suspension of Nick Brown MP, leading to his eventual resignation from the Labour Party. Nick was hardly some hardline lefty factionalist.
He had been Chief Whip during the leadership of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Jeremy Corbyn, and then Keir Starmer. He was suspended after a complaint was allegedly made against him for alleged behaviour 20 years previously and was warned not to divulge the complaint nor the complainant. He followed that advice. Eventually his distinguished solicitors advised him that they were unable to overcome the systematic refusal of the Labour Party to engage in any meaningful legal process.
There are various possible explanations for the treatment of Nick. He held a Tyneside seat with a massive Labour majority, and a huge number of Labour Party staff from the party’s Northern headquarters were in that constituency, or nearby, and fancied the seat for themselves. He had been Chief Whip during Gordon Brown’s leadership, and many old (and young Blairites) never forget or forgive.
He had been Chief Whip for Jeremy Corbyn and had wanted to restore the Whip to Jeremy. Take your pick. Maybe it was a bit of each. None of these matters provided any kind of legitimate basis for the way he was treated. Faced with a seemingly never-ending persecution or owning up to a crime he was very clear he had not committed, he resigned from the party. It was, in employment law terms a classic case of constructive dismissal.
Returning to the Welsh case, it should be noted that despite the inappropriate conduct of the selection process that led to a particular candidate being “chosen” and the removal of a different candidate who might well have won the selection and quite possibly the election, Plaid Cymru held the seat with a comfortable majority.
Not much more than a year from the next Senedd elections, it appears to be totally inactive.
Why does any of this matter?
Well, because in a way they are different from many, many other cases of labour miscarriages of justice.
These are cases of the blatant abuse of power by those in power for purely factional purposes. They have nothing to do with alleged anti-Semitism, or bringing the party into disrepute, or bullying and intimidation. They are simply barefaced, shameless victimisation of Labour Party members for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with genuine concerns about some kind of misconduct. More and more, they are simply a method of removing candidates from a whole range of internal and external elections, thus denying the party membership any democratic say in the process.
It demoralises many of those left in the party, leading to a reduction in activity and an inability to successfully contest elections. It progressively weakens “the gene pool” of those who wish to stand for public office.
It systematically corrupts any confidence in the Labour Party’s governance.
And one day the media, the Westminster bubble, and other parties, will start to make a very big issue of whether anyone can really put their faith in a party that has become so shameless in it’s various treatments of its own members
Dear Sir/Madam,
Re: My administrative suspension from the Labour Party
On 6/9/23 you emailed me to inform me of my suspension from the party, and on that date you said, “We will write to you as soon as possible with further information about the allegations”.
I have received no further communication from your department and have never been able to answer or refute any allegations made against me, nor defend my position, and now a very considerable period of time (16 months) has passed by.
In the meantime, there has been a general election during the run-up to which I was prevented, by my suspension, from campaigning on behalf of the party. This notwithstanding the fact that I received a number of communications from Labour HQ thanking me for being a loyal member and encouraging me to support my local branch and thanking me for renewing my membership fee.
I am dismayed, frustrated, and angered by the inordinate delay in dealing with this “investigation”. I wrote by email to you in November 2023 complaining about the way this matter had been dealt with, receiving no acknowledgement nor reply. I again emailed you (a year ago) in January 2024, as I had heard nothing.
I reiterate that I have been a faithful member of the Labour Party for many years, and I am shocked, saddened, depressed, and bitterly disappointed and disillusioned by the way I have been treated.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Reed
