Card Vote 16: Gender Balance in Party Leadership

Hornsey & Wood Green’s proposes Labour Party rule changes to ensure that at least one woman holds the position of Leader or Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

This motion was first submitted by Hornsey & Wood Green in May 2016 and should have been debated last year but for an NEC error, hence the inaccurate reference to 2020 — something that they have referred to as grounds to reject the motion.

This morning I proposed our motion, which will today be voted on as Card Vote 16.

However, a sudden withdrawal from Wirral West of their separate motion, Card Vote 15, seems to have reduced clarity around both the distinction between these motions and what is actually still on offer to voting delegates this afternoon.

For clarity, our motion is reproduced below.

In Chapter 4 Clause 2 Add after A:

At all times subsequent to the 2020 General Election, or earlier if a vacancy for Deputy Leader arises, at least one of the two positions of leader and deputy leader will be occupied by a woman. If the position of Deputy Leader is held by a man, and a leadership election is required for any reason, Leader and Deputy leader nominations and elections will be held simultaneously. The existing male deputy leader will only be eligible for re-election if the elected leader is a woman. He will be deemed to have resigned at the point of the declaration of the Leader election, unless the elected leader is a woman.

Add at end of 2.B i:

In the event of an election for deputy leader consequent on the requirement for at least one woman in the leadership, if at the close of the nomination period all candidates for Deputy Leader are male, nominations will be reopened with a threshold of 5% of the Commons members of the PLP. If after the close of such nomination period, there are no women nominations, nominations will reopen with self nomination from members of the PLP.

Add at beginning of 2 C iii:

Votes will be counted first for Leader. If a man is declared elected, the first preference votes for any man in the Deputy Leadership election will be disregarded. The second preference votes of those male candidates will be redistributed immediately and considered in the first round of counting. If a woman is elected leader, all votes and candidates will be counted in the Deputy Leader election.

Many may be wondering why this motion has been brought forward given that we have just had a Democracy Review. Democracy Review proposals have not addressed the question of gender balance in the Leadership of our party, and as a result this motion remains both relevant and vitally important.

Thanks to our existing progressive Labour Party rulebook, every time we vote in an election at Executive Committee, General Committee, and at Ward level, we do so safe in the knowledge that we will end up with a diverse and representative array of officers and delegates.

We know the principle of this motion works at a CLP level, and we only have to look over to the other side of the house of commons to see how not to do things. Whilst our diverse membership blossoms, just 29% of Conservative Party members are women. Only 21% of Conservative party MPs are women, and yet they still sit opposite our party at Prime Minister’s Questions and laugh at our party’s record on inclusivity. We have 119 fantastic women MPs to the government’s frankly dire 67. Having had two women prime ministers does not excuse the cultural and structural barriers to women’s inclusivity that manifest in the Conservative Party.

It is the Labour Party that sets the standard for inclusivity in politics, and it’s time that our leadership team reflected our ethos and our goals.

In 2016, Jeremy signed Labour Women’s Network’s inspiring pledge, Lead for Women, showing his support for this policy in principle.

It’s fantastic to see that other CLPs recognise the need for a representative leadership team, as Wirral West clearly do, but it worries H&WG that a new role should have to be carved out to accommodate women within our leadership team, and 33% is not up to the 50/50 standard to which we members hold ourselves at a CLP level.

As conference delegates heard on Sunday, every step we take forwards on women’s rights and inclusivity echoes around the world. We’ve had enough revelations about women’s experiences in politics this year to see that party rulebooks need to enshrine women’s voices at all levels.

I think it’s only right, that in the 100th year of women’s suffrage, we formally hold the Labour Party leadership to the standards of representation that we expect at a CLP level, and that we demand in every aspect of our lives.

We encourage conference delegates to SUPPORT Card Vote 16 when voting begins at 5.20pm tonight.

We also encourage all Labour Party to support Labour Women Network’s Time to Lead initiative.