Labour Party in Northern Ireland

For many years the UK Labour Party held to a policy of not allowing residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership,{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.labour.org.uk/join/form.html|title=Labour Party membership form}}, ca. 1999. Retrieved 31 March 2007. "Residents of Northern Ireland are not eligible for membership." instead recognising the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) as its sister party in Northern Ireland,{{Cite web |title=It’s Time for Labour to Disassociate from the SDLP |url=https://www.newsocialist.org.uk/its-time-labour-disassociate-sdlp/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=New Socialist |language=en}} which had informally taken the Labour whip in the House of Commons.[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/alcock.htm Understanding Ulster] by Antony Alcock, Ulster Society Publications, 1997. Chapter II: The Unloved, Unwanted Garrison. Via Conflict Archive on the Internet. Retrieved 31 October 2008. This relationship continues today, with Labour maintaining an electoral pact with the SDLP not to stand in Northern Ireland and to support SDLP candidates instead.

The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3154222.stm |title=Labour NI ban overturned |publisher=BBC News |date=1 October 2003 |access-date=31 May 2013}} and whilst the National Executive Committee has established a regional constituency party it has not yet agreed to contest elections there.

While the party has not officially contested elections in Northern Ireland, a Labour government in Westminster has administered the Northern Ireland Executive during periods of suspension and direct rule.

Margaret Ritchie, Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Labour Party.[https://members.parliament.uk/member/4130/career UK Parliament website, MPs and Lords section, Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick, retrieved 19 September 2024]

In December 2015, the LPNI's executive committee voted to contest elections in Northern Ireland.{{Cite web|url=http://www.labourpartyni.org/lpni_prepare_to_fight_elections|title=LPNI prepare to fight elections|access-date=18 January 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114113356/http://www.labourpartyni.org/lpni_prepare_to_fight_elections|archive-date=14 January 2016|df=dmy-all}} In the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections, local members registered a new party, the Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee, with the Electoral Commission recognising them in April 2016. The party's constitution has a clause stating that it will disband once Labour lifts the ban on contesting elections in Northern Ireland. The new party's leader is journalist and author Kathryn Johnston. Several former members of the Northern Ireland Labour Party hold membership, including Erskine Holmes and Douglas McIldoon. Eight candidates ran under the label, despite the Labour Party warning Northern Irish Labour party members that they could face expulsion from the party for standing as candidates, as Labour party members who support a political organisation outside the Labour group can be expelled.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36153432|title=NI Labour candidates warned not to stand in assembly election|last=Walker|first=Stephen|date=27 April 2016|publisher=BBC News|language=en-GB|access-date=15 September 2016}} Johnston highlighted policy differences with the SDLP, including Labour's position on abortion, same-sex marriage and support for an integrated and secular education system. The move to stand in elections was assisted by former Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay.{{Cite web|url=http://sluggerotoole.com/2016/04/13/welcome-to-the-northern-ireland-labour-representation-committee-party/|title=Welcome to the Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee party?|last=Fealty|first=Mick|date=13 April 2016|website=Slugger O'Toole|access-date=15 September 2016}} They stood one candidate each in eight of the eighteen constituencies in the 2016 Assembly elections. They won no seats, with candidates obtaining between 0.2% and 0.7% of the first-preference votes. After the 2016 assembly election, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had publicly stated that he would consider candidates for the next election, stating, "There is a democratic deficit in one sense. There is a question of a relationship with other parties in Northern Ireland as well and how that will be affected."{{cite web|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37474989?|title= Jeremy Corbyn: Labour will 'consider candidates in Northern Ireland' |author= Stephen Walker |publisher= BBC News |date= 26 September 2016 |access-date= 27 September 2018}}

In the 2016 UK leadership election, 765 Labour party members in Northern Ireland took part in the vote, with a majority voting for Corbyn (Corbyn 541; Owen Smith 224).{{Cite web|url=https://labourlist.org/2016/10/leadership-election-how-corbyn-won-across-the-uk-including-in-wales/|title=Leadership election: How Corbyn won across the UK - including in Wales|last=Edwards|first=Peter|date=19 October 2016|website=LabourList}}

The LPNI did not stand in the 2017 Assembly elections. However, LPNI member Donal O'Cofaigh was expelled from the party for standing on the Cross-Community Labour Alternative party list.{{cite web|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-politics-39029575 |title= Labour Party expels NI member for standing in election on different ticket |author= Jayne McCormack |publisher= BBC News |date= 20 February 2017 |access-date= 27 September 2018}} In May 2017, a member of the executive of the Labour Party in Northern Ireland wrote to the Labour Party threatening legal action should the party continue to refuse to allow LPNI members to stand for election in Northern Ireland.{{cite news |date=22 May 2017 |access-date= 26 June 2024|title=Legal threat against Labour over NI candidate ban |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39996929 |work=BBC News }} The following year, delegates from the Northern Ireland party attended the 2017 national conference to bring their arguments to other delegates at fringe events.{{cite web|url= http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/healthy-conference-talks-must-be-followed-by-labour-ending-undemocratic-electoral-ban-in-ni-36192983.html |title= 'Healthy' conference talks must be followed by Labour ending undemocratic electoral ban in NI |last= Ward |first=Andrew |work= Belfast Telegraph |publisher= Independent News & Media |date= 4 October 2017 |access-date= 27 September 2018}} In August 2017, several officers in the LPNI structure, including chair Anna McAleavy, vice chair Damien Harris and secretary Kathryn Johnston – the last of whom contested the 2016 assembly election – resigned in an internal struggle inside the party leading up to the National Executive Committee assessing LPNI's case for structuring as a full part of the Labour Party (like Welsh Labour or Scottish Labour).{{cite web|url= https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ni-labour-party-in-crisis-after-resignation-of-leading-officers-36009828.html |title= NI Labour Party in crisis after resignation of leading officers |last= Black |first= Rebecca |work= Belfast Telegraph |publisher= Independent News & Media |date= 7 August 2017 |access-date= 27 September 2018}}

In May 2018, Corbyn made his first visit to Northern Ireland as leader of the Labour Party. In this two-day visit, he visited Derry and the border areas and finished with a speech at Queen's University in Belfast. His speech focused on restoring devolved government – after it had been in a political deadlock since the 2017 assembly election – and mitigating disruption to Northern Ireland caused by Brexit.{{cite news|url= https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/05/labour-looking-future-northern-ireland-can-they-escape-corbyn-s-past |title= Labour is looking to the future in Northern Ireland – but can they escape Corbyn's past? |author= Patrick Maguire |work= New Statesman |date= 24 May 2018 |access-date= 26 September 2018}} His speech was 'broadly well received'; however, there was some upset caused within the regional Labour Party, as he did not visit any of the branches or executive committee in this time.{{cite news|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44127967 |title= Labour NI left hanging over Jeremy Corbyn's visit |author= Jayne McCormack |work= BBC News |date= 21 May 2018 |access-date= 27 September 2018}} At a fringe event during the 2018 Labour party conference in Liverpool, the Unite union leader Len McCluskey said his union would back Labour Party standing candidates in Northern Ireland if that was decided. Colum Eastwood, leader of the SDLP, was notably not at the conference that year when the leader of the party usually attends.{{cite web|url= https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2018/09/will-labour-run-northern-ireland |title= Will Labour run in Northern Ireland? |author= Patrick Maguire |publisher= New Statesman |date= 23 September 2018 |access-date= 26 September 2018}}

Despite this, Labour chose not to run candidates at the 2019 election, instead endorsing the Social Democratic and Labour Party again. In a statement to the Belfast Telegraph former Labour MP Kate Hoey called this decision "disappointing".{{Cite news|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/general-election-2019/labour-not-running-candidates-in-ni-elections-is-disappointing-hoey-38668684.html|title=Labour not running candidates in NI elections is disappointing: Hoey|work=BelfastTelegraph.co.uk|access-date=2019-12-18|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}

As of September 2017 it was recorded that 37,000 Northern Irish trade union members had opted-in to pay the political levy their trade union offers which largely goes to the Labour Party. Additionally the party in the area had over 2,000 members and 1,000 registered supporters.{{cite news|url= http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/northern-ireland-needs-the-chance-to-vote-labour-36110905.html |title= Northern Ireland needs the chance to vote Labour |author= Black, Boyd |work= The Belfast Telegraph |date= 8 September 2017 |access-date= 14 September 2017}}

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{{Political parties in Northern Ireland}}

{{UK Labour Party}}

Category:Organisations based in Belfast

Category:Organisation of the Labour Party (UK)

Category:Social democratic parties in the United Kingdom

Category:Labour parties in Northern Ireland

Category:Pro-European political parties in the United Kingdom

Category:Social democratic parties in Ireland

Category:2008 establishments in Northern Ireland