What kickback at Labour conference?

This year the Labour soft-left groups Open Labour and Compass are cooperating with Momentum to push template motions for Labour Party conference, both of them on a motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap, Open Labour on trans rights, and Compass on public ownership of water.

The motions are all cautiously worded, but there’s some tactical case for that. To get a topic prioritised for debate and a good composite, and to win union votes for it, on barebones wording, will have more political impact than a fierce motion which gets nowhere near conference floor.

The three groups have all sagged in recent years, and so has the long-lived Campaign for Labour Party Democracy. CLPD, Momentum, and Labour Campaign for Council Housing have however come together this year on a motion about housing.

Labour Left Internationalists is pushing a text on green conversion, ecology having dropped off the agenda at recent conferences despite backtracking on the issue by Starmer. Labour Campaign for Free Movement has a text on asylum (Momentum and CLPD have another, very weak). Momentum and CLPD also have a text on Palestine. UK Friends of Standing Together has another one, better in our view.

Local Labour Parties must submit motions by 11 September, and most local Labour Parties sending motions will decide in early September. The unions can prioritise an equal number of topics for debate, but their choices are usually revealed only shortly before conference.

Labour conferences 2022, 2023, and 2024 were dominated by the right, but not entirely so. These conferences are large events, 20,000 people in 2024 including observers, stallholders, etc., so “dominated by the right” does not mean “no left”.

This year is difficult to call. Labour membership is still sagging — latest count 309,000 — and attendance at meetings probably more so. But the resistance to the government’s plans to cut access to Personal Independence Payments for disabled people should encourage some to think that kicking back can make a difference. In a recent poll for Labour List, 59% of Labour members said the party should move to the left, and a further 35% that it should move “further and faster” on its vague pledges to restore public services.

The conference is from 27 September to 1 October in Liverpool. Labour Left Internationalists (LLI) tell us they are appealing for activists to come to help leaflet and run fringe meetings, and can organise cheap accommodation.

• LLI website labourleftint.uk has more info.