| Save the Labour Party |
| NEWS RELEASE 01/05 Labour Party ruling body urged to hold Leadership to policy promises; rebuild party For immediate release London, 24 January – The Labour Party ruling body meeting tomorrow is being challenged to hold the Leadership to Manifesto promises and commit to rebuild a mass membership party to encourage activism and turnout at the general election expected in May. In a letter to Labour National Executive Committee members, the grassroots campaigning organisation, Save the Labour Party (STLP) chair Peter Kenyon said: “From our soundings there is considerable reluctance all round the country on the part of rank-and-file members who do not depend in any way for their livelihood on the Party to campaign for a Labour 3rd term.” The letter cites three issues for the Labour Party to tackle now: the need for a Labour manifesto (as opposed to an unremittingly New Labour one called for by Party Leader Tony Blair), a response to the Electoral Commission report on political party funding which called for Britain’s leading political parties to broaden their support and turned down bids for increased state-funding (sought by the Blairites to enable traditional links with the trade unions to be cut), and more time for a review of party’s controversial policy making machinery. For full text click here Media enquiries: Peter Kenyon M: 07802 216 591 eMail: peter.g.kenyon@btinternet.com Notes to Editors 1. STLP is campaigning to save the labour party as a democratically-run membership organisation and challenging the Leadership to work with it. Since it was set up a year ago, STLP has attracted support from most sections of the Labour Party, not just its left wing. It has members in nearly 100 parliamentary constituencies and close links with other campaigning organisations in the labour movement in England, Scotland and Wales. 2. Labour Party finances have become increasingly dependent on a small number of rich individuals 3. Labour membership as measured by the national membership system introduced in the 1990s peaked at 407,000 in 1997, and has fallen every year since to stand at a reported 208,000 (on a comparable basis) in mid-2004. Only 190,000 ballot papers were issued in May to fully-paid up members in the 2004 NEC constituency section elections according to an NEC source. pk |