Labour will kick plans to give thousands of new members more power in party structures into the long grass, amid concerns that the party needs to focus on the possibility of an imminent general election.

The party’s executive committee has decided to put plans for a so-called “democracy day” on hold in order to focus on election strategy.



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The move means that any concessions to MPs, such as shadow cabinet elections, which were demanded during the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, have also been shelved.

Sources close to Jeremy Corbyn said plans to give Labour’s 500,000 members more representatives on the party’s national executive committee (NEC) would be stalled, despite the launch this week of a national campaign by Momentum urging the change.

The leftwing Labour pressure group wants Corbyn to make members more central in the party after his hugely successful re-election campaign.



Greater representation for members would benefit Corbyn, but Labour sources said that NEC’s annual away day on Tuesday had been refocused to prepare for a general election.

Jon Trickett, a senior figure in the shadow cabinet who is in charge of Labour’s election strategy, will tell the NEC on Tuesday that the party has commissioned the polling company BMG and taken on the branding agency Krow Communications, which has worked with the Team GB athletes.

After an injection of cash from the summer’s leadership election – thousands paid £25 to vote for either Corbyn or Owen Smith in the poll – the party is also planning to hire more campaign staff and move into bigger offices.

“The prospect of an early general election has accelerated our progress in bringing the Labour party’s campaigning techniques up to date,” a Labour source said.

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“Some of the things that have been developed are pioneering. We know that when people are asked about our policies they like them, and the improvements we have made to our campaigning infrastructure will help the party gets its message out more effectively.”

The party’s senior staff are also planning to take up the digital campaign tools developed by Corbyn’s supporters, many of them young and tech-savvy, to use in support of the party as a whole. Local campaigners will be given the ability to upload campaign adverts directly to Facebook.

NEC member Alice Perry said there was a general consensus that the party had to stop talking only about itself. “The Labour party can’t afford the luxury of looking inward,” Perry said. “We know we must address the challenges the UK faces post-Brexit and offer our own, positive vision for modern Britain.

“Our priority is preparing for important local elections in 2017 and ensuring we are ready for a general election, whenever that may be.”

Despite the reasoning, and Corbyn wanting some of the democracy day changes, critics will see the ditching of the initiative as the leadership team reneging on a promise made at the party’s conference.

In September, MPs were clamouring for the leadership to consider shadow cabinet elections as a means of reuniting the party after a bruising summer.

“Democracy day is dead,” one Corbyn-sceptic source said. “It’s possible they could spring something last minute at the meeting but even if they do, I don’t think there’s any appetite for yet more internal reforms.”

A source close to the leader’s office said they had not entirely abandoned the idea of overhauling party structures. “We still want to build consensus on party reform issues such as improved membership representation on the NEC,” the source said. “But, as the party gears up for a general election, that is now going to be the focus on Tuesday. The issue has not been shelved, though.”

Pressure to give members more of a say on the party governing body remains, however. On Monday, Momentum, along with the leftwing CLPD and CLGA groups launched a campaign called Your Party which they said aimed to “transform Labour into a member-led party”.



Members will be encouraged to lobby their NEC representatives to push for a bigger presence on the NEC. Currently half a million members are represented by six NEC representatives, the same number as represent MPs. The groups are also calling for the Labour party conference to have sovereignty over policymaking.

A Momentum spokesman said: “Labour is now the biggest left-of-centre party in Europe. The Your Party campaign seeks to deliver a Labour party that is in tune with the membership, who are best placed to understand the views of the electorate.

“By ensuring members feel valued in the Labour party, we can make the most of our mass membership to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people to deliver leaflets and knock on doors across the country, putting forward Labour’s vision to rebuild and transform Britain and getting Labour candidates elected.”