Text of a motion to be put to the NEC tomorrow
This meeting of the NEC notes:
1. the Labour Party’s purpose is to organise and maintain in Parliament and in the
country a political Labour Party;
2. the NEC’s primary purpose, pursuant to Chapter 1, Clause VIII.2 of the Labour
Party Rule Book,is to provide a strategic direction for the Labour Party as a whole,
to secure the Labour Party’s objectives, and that the NEC’s key function is to win
elections and maintain the support of voters, pursuant to Chapter 1, Clause
VIII.2.B of the Labour Party Rule Book;
3. the NEC’s responsibility to act in the best interests of the Labour Party as a
whole to further, as best as it can, the Labour Party’s best political interests and
its political position in the country;
4. that the Labour Party has not secured a Parliamentary majority in the House of
Commons since 2005;
5. that, in the 2019 general election, led by Rt Hon. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour
Party returned 202 MPs to Parliament, being the lowest number of Labour
Party MPs returned since the 1935 general election; and
6. Mr Corbyn is currently a member of the Labour Party and an Independent MP
for Islington North; and
7. that the Labour Party’s standing with the electorate in the country, and its
electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a
Parliamentary majority and/or win the next general election, are both
significantly diminished should Mr Corbyn be endorsed by the Labour Party as
one of its candidates for the next general election.
This meeting of the NEC considers and agrees that:
8. in order to effect the NEC’s primary purpose to maximise the Labour Party’s
prospects of winning the next general election, and to avoid any detrimental
impact on the Labour Party’s standing with the electorate in the country as a
whole;
9. the Labour Party’s interests, and its political interests at the next general
election, are not well served by Mr Corbyn running as a Labour Party candidate;
and
10.it is not in the best interests of the Labour Party for it to endorse Mr Corbyn as
a Labour Party candidate at the next general election.
Accordingly, this meeting resolves that:
11.Mr Corbyn will not be endorsed by the NEC as a candidate on behalf of the
Labour Party at the next general election;
12.the General Secretary write to Mr Corbyn immediately after this meeting to
advise him of the above; and
13.Mr Corbyn remains a member of the Labour Party and, save as set out above,
his rights to attend Labour Party meetings and voting rights afforded under the
Labour Party Rule Book remain unchanged.
Proposer: Keir Starmer
Seconded: Shabana Mahmood
"The opportunity to serve our country: that is all we ask.” John Smith, May 11, 1994.
57.1 %
4.8 %
28.6 %
9.5 %
