Deselection of Labour MPs#1979–present

{{Rquote|right|To some MPs the Labour Party, to which they owe everything, becomes an inconvenient pressure group – except at election times when grudging lip-service has to be paid to the Labour manifesto.

Reselection must be used to make clear to MPs that this elevated view of their role has had its day. Labour MPs have no rights more or less than the ordinary card carrying Party members. They are simply the party members to whom has fallen the honour of giving practical expression to the ideals of the Labour movement.|Chris Mullin & Charlotte Atkins, How To Select or Reselect your MP|{{cite web |title=The Labour Left |author=Patrick Seyd|publisher=Department of Political Theory and Institutions|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2992/2/DX096971_2.pdf}}}}Labour Party rules specify that MPs will face a "trigger ballot" procedure where each branch of the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and each affiliate (trade union and socialist society) branch will have a simple majority vote on whether they wish their sitting MP to automatically stand again in the next general election, or whether they wish to have a full selection process.{{Cite web|url=https://labourlist.org/2019/08/how-labours-trigger-ballot-system-works/|title=How Labour's trigger ballot system works|date=2019-08-12|website=LabourList|access-date=2019-09-30}}

If one third or more of party or affiliate branches vote for a full selection then the sitting MP will face a vote of all party members to decide whether they want their existing MP, or an alternative candidate to represent them at the next election.{{Cite web|url=https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/104973/revealed-labour-mps-given-trigger-ballot-guide|title=REVEALED: Labour MPs given trigger ballot guide as 'purge' fears grow|last=PoliticsHome.com|date=2019-07-01|website=PoliticsHome.com|access-date=2019-09-30}}

Before 1970 the process for reconsidering support for a sitting MP required three Constituency General Committee (GC) meetings to be called for the purpose of considering whether to support the MP, followed by a meeting of affiliates to the CLP where affiliate GC delegates were mandated to vote a certain way. If the local party sought to remove their MP the MP could then appeal this decision to the NEC.

The NEC was at this time controlled by the right of the Labour Party and almost invariably sided with the sitting MP and against the Constituency Party. The NEC threatened to disband some CLPs which sought to change their Labour MP.{{Cite book|title=Pathways to Parliament : Candidate Selection in Britain|last=Ranney, Austin|date=1965|publisher=University of wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299035600|location=Wisconsin|oclc=468512977}}

The rules governing reselection were amended at Labour Party Conference in 1970 making it marginally less difficult to challenge a sitting MP. Dropping the required number of GC meetings from three to two and removing the mandating of affiliate GC delegates.

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), founded in 1973, was set up by left wing Labour activists to organise for greater democratic representation within the Labour Party. CLPD spent the next six years organising to seek to win a rule change at Labour Party Conference to create an automatic reselection procedure for each sitting Labour MP.

At Labour Party Conference in 1974 the NEC reported that they had conducted a review of the rules and concluded that no changes were required. Ken Coates moved a motion to seek automatic selection at this conference which was defeated. Although CLPs submitted motions in 1975 and 1976 calling for an automatic selection procedure to be introduced these were ruled out of order on the grounds that they breached the 'three year rule'.See equivalent rule in the 2019 Labour Party Rule Book chapter 3, clause II, section 2, subsection H: "When Party conference has made a decision on a constitutional amendment, no resolution to amend the constitution or rules of the Party having the same or a similar primary objective shall appear on the agenda of the three following annual party conferences, except such resolutions to amend the constitution and rules that are in the opinion of the NEC of immediate importance."

67 CLPs submitted motions calling for automatic reselection to the 1977 conference. These motions were ruled out of order on the grounds that they breached the '1968 rule'This rule, introduced at Labour Party Conference in 1968, specified that any proposed constitutional rule changes at conference were referred to the NEC to consider for the following year's conference. However, Ian Mikardo announced on behalf of the NEC that "We shall put down at next year's Annual Conference all the amendments to the constitution necessary to provide automatic reselection in the way and in the sense that the sponsors of those sixty-odd resolutions want. I do not think there is the least chance of the Executive reneging on that undertaking."

At Labour Party Conference in 1978 the NEC broke this commitment and did not bring forward the proposal for automatic reselection. CLPD organised for a motion on automatic reselection to be voted on. The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AUEW) delegates had democratically agreed to support the CLPD motion however when it came to the vote the AUEW's then president, Hugh Scanlon, voted against the CLPD motion, and it was narrowly defeated. Following an intensive 12-month organising campaign by CLPD, at Labour Party Conference in 1979 a CLPD motion for automatic reselection was passed.

Gavin Strang MP suggested that one of the consequences of the introduction of mandatory reselection was that MPs spent more time in their constituencies, saying "it's far more the normal thing now to have an office in the constituency, to employ someone there, and to live in the constituency. Reselection has turned MPs into better campaigners for the local party."{{Cite book|title=Labour : a tale of two parties|last=Wainwright, Hilary.|date=1987|publisher=Hogarth|isbn=0701207787|location=London|oclc=16092917}}

In 1990 Neil Kinnock, then leader of the Labour Party, scrapped mandatory reselection, replacing it with a system of trigger ballots.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/08/qa-what-deselection-and-what-does-it-mean-labour-mps|title=Q&A: What is deselection, and what does it mean for Labour MPs?|website=www.newstatesman.com|date=August 2016 |language=en|access-date=2019-10-05}}

Changes to make deselection of Labour MPs easier, by lowering the number of branches that have to vote to trigger a contest from 50% to 33%, were passed by a large majority at Labour's 2018 Party Conference.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45621354|title=Deselecting Labour MPs made easier|date=2018-09-24|access-date=2019-09-30}} However, the proposal made by a number of CLPs for open selections was not permitted to go to a vote, leading to criticism from Momentum who described the changes as "meager" with "key proposals being watered down".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/24/labour-agrees-mp-selection-rule-changes-despite-party-splits|title=Labour agrees MP selection rule changes despite party splits|agency=Press Association|date=2018-09-24|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-10-05|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

No Labour MPs were deselected during the leadership of Ed Miliband or the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

In February 2022, it was reported that Jeremy Corbyn was close to being deselected.{{Cite news |last=Boycott-Owen |first=Mason |date=2022-02-13 |title=Jeremy Corbyn 'close to being deselected' as Labour MP |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/13/jeremy-corbyn-close-deselected-labour-mp/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |issn=0307-1235}} In October 2022, Sam Tarry became the first MP to be deselected since 2010. He was beaten by leader of Redbridge London Borough Council Jas Athwal.{{Cite news |date=2022-10-10 |title=Sam Tarry: Former shadow minister ousted in deselection vote |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63208987 |access-date=2022-10-12}} Tarry questioned the integrity of the election, citing the electronic voting system that was used to count the votes.{{Cite web |last=Chaplain |first=Chloe |date=2022-10-11 |title=Labour MP Sam Tarry attacks deselection as 'manufactured circus' after members vote to oust him |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-sam-tarry-deselection-keir-starmer-polling-election-1906501 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=inews.co.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2022-10-11 |title='Crestfallen' Sam Tarry calls for vote audit after deselection as MP |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/11/sam-tarry-calls-for-vote-audit-deselection-mp-jas-athwal |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

This list does not include MPs who successfully overturned a vote to deselect them at the NEC.

• [http://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Rule-Book-2019.pdf Labour Party Rulebook 2019]
• Blackburn, Tom. (2017) [https://newsocialist.org.uk/in-defence-of-party-democracy/ In Defence of Party Democracy]
• Osland, David. (2016) How to Select or Reselect Your MP: 2016 Remix {{ISBN|0851248616}}
• Leys, Colin. Coates, David & Panitch, Leo (1997) The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour {{ISBN|9781859843383}}
• Shaw, Eric (1988) Discipline and Discord: Politics of Managerial Control in the Labour Party, 1951–86 {{ISBN|0719024838}}
• Seyd, Patrick. (1987) The Rise and Fall of the Labour Left {{ISBN|9780333447475}}
• Wainwright, Hilary. (1987) Labour: A Tale of Two Parties {{ISBN|0701207787}}
• Seyd, Patrick. (1986) The Labour Left PhD [http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2992/1/DX096971_1.pdf Volume 1] & [http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2992/2/DX096971_2.pdf Volume 2]
• Mullin, Chris. (1981) How to Reselect Your Member of Parliament {{ISBN|0901740748}}

{{reflist}}

• Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

{{UK Labour Party}}

Category:Labour Party (UK) primaries

Category:Politics of the United Kingdom