There’s a thread in one of the Labour Party forums on Facebook, and probably in many places arguing that Delegates to Conference cannot be mandated. The fact is that the rulebook is silent. However even where no instruction on how to vote is issued, a Delegate needs to interpret the wishes of all those that sent them; they won’t be sent again otherwise. This may not matter in factionally riven CLPs but the concept of mandate is common in the Unions, and where issued they should be adhered to.

The agenda and the specific motion text, except for CLP proposed rule changes for LP conference is not available until Conference meets and so any mandates have to be in principle. There are some elections that take place at Conference and if the delegates organisation has made nominations then they should treat it as a mandate. I know I did last year. Our CLP also issued an instruction on how to vote in the priorities ballot.

The question we should be asking is how to involve the maximum number of members in policy making.

Mandates

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: