Campaign report: Conference 2022
Praise for #Labour4PR 2022
A year of progress - summary of achievements
The 2022 Labour Party conference was an emphatic victory for the Labour for a New Democracy (L4ND) campaign:
Our motion was carried by an overwhelming majority, including a majority of both party membership and trade union delegates.
It commits to including a proportional electoral system in the next manifesto and enacting reform during the first term of the next Labour government.
This historic outcome is the result of a year of intensive campaigning - with trade unions, local parties and a highly organised delegate operation - building on the strong foundations established at the 2021 Labour conference.
We are now already pushing on with the next phase of the campaign to secure a manifesto commitment to electoral reform - and a Labour government to implement it.
Watch the moment Labour conference voted for Proportional Representation
The trade union campaign
L4ND has worked with Politics for the Many to support trade unionists as they mobilising demand for Proportional Representation within their unions - coordinating motions, organising delegates, leafleting conference attendees, and running stalls and fringe events.
Unite came out in favour of electoral reform at its October 2021 Policy Conference.
CWU conference condemned First Past the Post as “undemocratic” and committed to a policy review.
Unison national delegate conference committed to Proportional Representation in June, with Unison’s Labour Link Forum resolving to champion the policy in July.
Aslef, FBU, MU, TSSA all had existing policy in favour of Proportional Representation at the beginning of the year.
The CLP campaign
Over 140 Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) voted to send motions on PR to conference, of which 129 were accepted. This made PR by far the most in-demand issue at the Labour Party conference for the second year running - unprecedented for any issue.
The total number of CLPs with policy in favour of PR climbed to 372 - some 60% of all CLPs. More than 96% of CLPs which debated a motion on PR decided to support it.
L4NDs enabled this work by organising and mobilising among the membership at constituency level:
Outreach operation to encourage contacts in CLPs to table and pass motions.
Levelling Up Democracy events with senior figures including Andy Burnham and Mark Drakeford in conversation.
Speaker programme with Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, attending branch, trade union and CLP meetings.
Conference operation
In Liverpool we brought together organisers, delegates and a huge team of volunteers to put on our most effective conference operation yet:
Political management: engaging with key stakeholders to inform our strategy both before and during the conference.
Delegate network: sending crucial updates and guidance to over 200 CLP and affiliate delegates.
Delegate briefings: online pre-conference and daily at-conference briefings to share intel and set strategy.
Volunteer team: leafletting virtually every conference attendee; organising fringes and logistics.
Brand visibility: highly visible merchandise including thousands of lanyards, tote bags, stickers, T-shirts and flyers.
Social media and video: with videos turned around within hours, both before and after the vote.
Press operation: briefing journalists and appearing on broadcast coverage, such as BBC Politics Live.
Stall: co-hosted and staffed with Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform; pick-up point for information and merch.
Fringe: three well-attended L4ND fringe events, including the launch of our report on the Brown Commission (Everything but the Commons) and flagship ‘Make FPTP History’ rally.
Thank you!
Finally, thank you to every individual who supported the campaign over the last two years. This historic result simply would not have happened without thousands of Labour members and trade unionists taking action across the UK.
Thank you to all the CLPs, trade unions and affiliates who supported Proportional Representation at conference - and to all the organisations that have supported the L4ND coalition.
The next stage of the campaign is to secure the manifesto commitment that Labour’s supreme body has voted for - and to help put into office a Labour government to implement it. Sign up to our mailing list and we’ll be in touch with next steps.
The full motion carried by conference
Composite 8 – ELECTORAL REFORM (1)
Our political system has catastrophically failed to represent people’s wishes, needs and votes.
No one voted for housing food, heating or transport to be beyond the means of ordinary people.
No one voted for our health, education and justice systems to be underfunded past breaking point. To build a better society address distrust and alienation in politics and to safeguard the union, everyone must have an equal voice.
First Past the Post (FPTP) does long-term damage to the health of our democracy. Labour must commit to fixing it.
In the 2019 General Election, there were: 38,264 votes for every Tory MP elected; 50,836 for every Labour MP, 25,882 for every SNP MP.
Devolution was a major achievement of the last Labour government. Labour is already committed to extending democracy, from strengthening devolution to Lords reform.
But our democratic system will remain broken – until we replace FPTP with a form of Proportional Representation.
There are systems of PR that retain a strong constituency link between MPs and their electorates, while ensuring that votes count equally and seats match votes.
Conference resolves that:
Labour must make a commitment to introduce Proportional Representation for general elections in the next manifesto.
During its first term in office the next Labour government must change the voting system for general elections to a form of PR.
Labour should convene an open and inclusive process to decide the specific proportional voting system it will introduce.
Mover: Ashford CLP
Seconder: North West Leicestershire CLP
