Saturday 22 November 2014

Row over Labour leadership contest deepens

YESTERDAY I blogged on the internal row raging inside the Scottish Labour party over the running of its leadership contest.

A key issue is the candidates' booklet sent to party members. It contains a list of nominations for all the candidates, but only endorsements from parliamentarians.

These nominations favour Jim Murphy more than Neil Findlay or Sarah Boyack. Trade union and CLP endorsements have not been included.

Here is Mr Findlay's press release, which he has just put out. Italics are mine:


"Neil Findlay MSP is to seek clarification from the Labour Party over the information being provided to members with their Leadership ballot papers.
 The booklet detailing the candidate statement it contains only a list of nominations from Parliamentarians. It makes no mention of supporting nominations from Constituency Labour Parties, trade Unions or socialist societies.
 Many CLP’s and trade unions held special events in order to make a nomination.   Over the last 24 hours I have been made aware of a deep frustration from local Labour Party branches and affiliated organisations that their nominations for the leadership campaign have been excluded from the candidates booklet.
 I view all parts of our Labour Party as equal so I am surprised that Only MPs and MSPs nominations have been included. It is insulting given the effort and expense members, CLP’s Trade Union’s and socialistsocieties went to organise special meetings and consultation events, only to be ignored as seemingly inconsequential.
 I am contacting the Labour Party today to find out why this has happened and what they can do to fix this."