NEC Meeting - 19th May 2026
Shabana Mahmood welcomed us as Chair, followed by a minute silence for colleagues we have recently lost – Sir Jeremy Beecham, Phil Woolas and Tony Worthington.
We then were joined by Keir who gave us a short leader’s report which started as a reflection on the recent local elections results. He acknowledged that the election results were really tough and consequently we have lost some brilliant Labour representatives across the country who’ve been part of their communities for a very long time. “I take responsibility for those results” he said and is in the process of speaking to Council leaders who lost. It is clear that the changes we are making are not yet felt – and there is deep anger and frustration”
Keir then mentioned a few recent successes – waiting lists down, renationalising steel, growth up. We must now act at speed and concentrate on getting our message across. He finished by saying that he will support 100% the candidate for Makerfield and reminded us that we will fight this as one family.
There were questions on PR which continue to be raised both at NEC but by CLPs across the country. Keir would not be drawn, reflecting that the electoral system changed in Wales for these elections and did not improve the outcomes for Labour [fair but slightly misses the point]
He confirmed that there would be clarification on draft legislation on conversion practices and promised to pick up potential job losses at Network Rail with the Department of Transport.
On the Defence Investment Plan, we are making good progress but any increase in spend has to be conditional on keeping jobs in this country and looking at the supply chains [procurement]. Keir confirmed that energy security is one of the next big key policy areas and that oil and gas will be part of the energy mix for decades to come – with the caveat that we need to get to energy independence as soon as possible.
There was an interesting and well made point about media ownership and a suggestion we should be looking at applying the rules enforced in Australia [where there isn’t a strict ban BUT where limits are in place to control foreign investment and influence]. Something I would support.
Finally Keir said we need to strengthen the Independent Advisory role for any breaches in code of conduct by elected representatives and promised that we would have a dedicated meeting to unpick the widening schism between Labour vote share in Wales, Scotland, the regions and London.
Lucy Powell opened her Deputy Leadership Report by thanking staff for their recent efforts in the local elections and in Wales and Scotland.There followed a lengthy discussion on the local election – although a lot of this cannot be dissected until we get the marked registers back and have further data inputted. Whilst we are all encouraged to throw the kitchen sink at Makerfield I did suggest to her that we must also give some space for those who have lost their seats to be able to process what has just happened to them. Nicola Jukes talked about the seismic loss of Wakefield and I mentioned both Barnsley and Sheffield. Yorkshire had its fair share of drubbing in the locals. Claire Holland, one of the Local government reps on the NEC gave an emotional and fair summary of the scale of loss across the country.I also mentioned the need to invoke Operation Ford in Sheffield and the success of having women-only and women-led campaign sessions.
The general secretary, Hollie Ridley, also paid tribute to staff for their work on the local elections and mentioned the number of good people who lost their seats. It was also a timely reminder that the staff numbers are reduced in a general election year the Party employs a lot more people] so a lot rested on fewer shoulders. A lot of difficult decisions regarding resources and also about targeting had to be made.This is why empowering local activists and upskilling them remains critical.
The scale of these recent elections was huge and more complex than any general election [because of the factor of Wales and Scotland] and there is still no respite for staff, many of whom have not had any holiday for months. Now we have another by election so we must be mindful of resources – both financial and people. As an aside the first weekend of the campaign in Makerfield got off to a good start – 60 Corex board up by today and over 2,000 contacts made.
I asked Hollie about our twinning and targeting strategy [which I’m wholly in favour of] but which does expose huge issues in terms of imbalance of resources. I used the example of my branch -Ecclesall in Sheffield Hallam – which is the size of many other CLPs. We have to target and twin with more sophistication that reflects where activists are, and be mindful of some branches where they are fighting for their lives with a handful of people.There is increasingly an issue of where some branches are on life support so at some stage we need to have a strategy on retention and regrowth or reorganization that builds a better model for campaigning.
There was also a discussion about the messaging and the success or otherwise of using Vote Labour to stop X. Increasingly seen as a blunt and ineffective message if it’s not done alongside a very local and appealing offer. The digital offer that was so effective in the general election was not as good or as apparent in the locals. Going forward we need to make sure that candidates develop their own organic presence that we can build on.
Finally Hollie reflected that we have lost the art of mobilising effectively in places – it’s hard and time consuming – but we need to revisit that.
With the Treasurers Report we were informed that there are concerns about the challenges ahead – not least of all the outlay of ongoing elections and the possibility of a leadership contest. These had all been factored in but does mean that 2026 is throwing up challenges. The current political climate and swirl means that some donors are reluctant to commit until they see some stability. We’ve also lost some income with significant loss of councillors.
We then had three excellent presentations on the recent local elections followed by reflections from Wales and Scotland.
Headline findings: we lost 1498 English councillors and control of 37 Councils- most we have lost in one cycle. Interesting to note where the Tory vote held up and how Lib Dems fared. We lost 37 Councils in total. On projected national share we are on 18%
The Party is taking lessons from Gorton and Denton and bespoke messaging and reviewing the organisational approach. The ground war vs air war has been revisited although the themes emerging for general messaging is around Cost of Living and Health. Each region will be having a review and then we will do a more detailed deeper dive once we get the marked registers. We are in such a different set of circumstances and every area has peculiarities – vital to train activists to understand their own demographic and tribes.
Emerging Areas for Learning – higher number of undecideds needing new persuasion approaches; new context for squeeze messaging; platform diversification apparent; new key voter groups emerging; emergence of AI
We are being squeezed both ways – Greens in younger wards and Reform in older, more working class. NOTE there was no reflection on Lib Dems or the rise of the Independents here which I think I’d like to follow up on.
The main song for switching from voting Labour in 2024 was the general need for change is true across switches to all parties. Time for a change was especially true of Labour to Reform but it was also the top reason for Labour to Green switchers with most of the latter saying it was a protest vote.
Messaging: demonstrate risk of Reform; expose association with extreme views; Reform not on your side. For Greens – labour delivery rooted in Labour values; Greens have the wrong answer and wrong priorities; inexperience and failure once in control of local councils.
Successes to build on: threw our opponents off their grid and onto ground they didn’t want to fight on. However it is evident in a short campaign this is not enough to gain ground quickly. Only now are the Reform attacks such as on Richard Tice’s tax or the dossier on Farage beginning to reap some benefit
Oppo watch – had a good response and resulted in quality intel. The Reform leaflet claiming not to raise taxes was reissued as Reform Councils raised taxes! The Party is investing in part time regional research volunteers
Jackie Baillie – Reported on Scotland’s elections : We lost 4 sitting MSPs and now have 17, 41% of whom are women.The SNP denied an overall majority. They’ve got swiftly into saying they want independence. We are tied with Reform on the same number of seats although they got less vote share. Our vote share went down by 2%. At the previous 2021 election to the Scottish Parliament, the SNP won 64 seats and Labour won 22.
Whilst we had an inclusive Manifesto and did focus group work to get our messaging right we, as a Party, did not help ourselves. Mandelson was back in the news a week before we voted and the vibe of the campaign was all wrong. We attempted to run almost a Hamliton by election again without the activist base
Joe Pike reported from Wales where he said there was a definite anti incumbency feeling. The main issues centred around cost of living and the health service and whilst our offer of a major £4 billion NHS infrastructure overhaul that features two flagship hospital developments no one trusted us to deliver.
Wales has moved to a D’Hondt system for voting – ‘closed proportional list’ system. Wales is now divided into 16 new constituencies, each one electing six Members of the Senedd. You can vote for a party or an independent candidate and seats are then shared out based on how many votes each party receives. But local targeting is hard with super constituencies and really hard to deliver a ground campaign and with how our membership is dispersed. The Welsh media continues to be a challenge for UK Labour
On the back of these presentations I asked if we could map the 2016 EU referendum data with the recent local results as this election felt very much like a rerun of that referendum [ indeed if you match the Reform gains, it mirror it]. I also pointed out that our data needs to improve – we were getting a 37% promise rate that translated into something like 22 -25% on the day. I also noted that we are reaching activist fatigue and if we don’t build up our activist base
FINALLY my views on what is unfolding with a potential leadership challenge. I am a CLP representative and have a duty to represent and reflect all views. It will come as no surprise that views are many and varied. However many are unhappy at the speed at which we are moving towards a challenge and some openly express that now is not the time to change a leader. Some are worried that we are playing into Farage’s hands. Others would like a quick and seamless transition. I need to point out there is NO leadership contest at the moment – just a byelection and I shall be there to support the effort in Makerfield. The next NEC is July 7th by which time we will know more what’s coming down the line. As ever please send me views. I will send separately a note about Makerfield and whats possibly coming down the line.
NEC Meeting - 24th March 2026
It has been known for an NEC meeting to last under 4 hours [not often but it’s possible]. Tuesday was not one of those meetings. Held in Number 10 and with the Prime Minister, the Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, Ellie Reeves the Solicitor General, Lucy Powell, the Deputy Prime Minister and Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State in attendance there was a lot to get through. And we even got to hang out, briefly, with Larry the cat.
Chaired by Peter Wheeler the meeting started with obituaries. Sadly this month there were a lot: : Cllr Alan Dawson; Lord David Triesman; Cllr Wasseem Zaffar; Kenneth Weetch MP; Nathaniel Dye; John Burton; Aysha Raza and Phil Woolas MP.
General Secretaries Report
Hollie Ridley started by saying that we cannot sugar coat Gorton and Denton by election result. However this was a battle but not the war. There will be a data led review of the campaign at the next meeting once they get the marked registers. Some initial observations and learnings – the need to aggressively frame the choices between us and other parties; the importance of the role of digital; recognising Greens are very different beasts in different parts of the country and operate differently; the challenge of opposition candidates with large online followers. Going forward we need loud, visible multi platform campaigns. Holly received a huge vote of thanks from all members of NEC for input by her and staff during the by-election where we saw 1000 volunteers campaigning on the day, and had 10,000 members contribute financially.
The fact that the internal elections for Young Labour and Labour Students had to be rerun was discussed. Following an internal audit of the elections the General Secretary found that the freeze date applied was incorrect and it was decided that the only fair course of action is to re-run the Labour Students and Young Labour ballots. Ballots are now open and close April 8th. Pastoral and safeguarding support has been offered to all candidates
There was mention of the continuing battle to get the Party on a good, financial footing but the prolonged discussion was about campaigning against the Greens. I asked about the research done into voting behavior in Gorton and Denton where it was obvious that many were undecided even on the last day. We also need to look at where Green councils are in power and what their track record is – for example look at Bristol. We also rely on local knowledge and due diligence issues on Green councillors [some now councillors who were expelled from Labour] and on the doorstep it will be useful to interrogate why past Labour support now voting Green.
Cabinet Report: Heidi Alexander
Renationalisation of rail is underway with Railways Public Ownership Act – so far 8 out of 14 service providers are now public sector companies. The Railways Bill is going through parliament that will establish Great British Railways and reform of the complex and fragmented fares with a new passenger watchdog.
Over £15bn will be given to city regions over next 5 years for integrated public transport and will enable things like Leeds to finally get its mass transit system up and running – currently the largest city in Western Europe without a light rail or metro-style system. And Northern Powerhouse Rail announced in January will be a game changer
Outside of London buses are crucial – four out of five journeys done by bus. I gave her a copy of South Yorkshire Transport plan to deliver a fully integrated, publicly controlled transport network across the region, with major works planned across tram, bus, rail, and active travel infrastructure. Keeping fares low will be central to this.
Potholes are a massive issue on the doorstep. A second tranche of money is going to Councils this year with a new accountability framework to make sure they do spend the money on potholes and not something else
There followed questions around getting freight off the road, the issue and safety of driverless taxis and impact on taxi firms and a discussion on the Road Safety Strategy
Treasurers Report
There was a reassurance from outgoing Party Treasurer, Mike Payne, that the books will be balanced but the decision by Unite to cut its Labour affiliation by £580,000 brings fresh challenges. Mike has worked hard over the last 18 months to get improved financial systems in place. Income generation targets are now bearing fruit but the recent decision by Unite will mean that some readjustments have to be made.
Deputy Leaders Report
Lucy Powell started by thanking the staff for their incredible ground campaign in Gorton. It was a disappointing result when we had been ahead when we sampled the postal votes. She said we must renew our endeavour to articulate the case for voting Labour.
She had a meeting with TULO [with the PM] and discussed issues around the employment rights enactment and implementation and she emphasized her desire to get a resolution to the Birmingham bin strike.
The “Lucy Listens” events had a good take up from members and this was followed up by a survey to members that found the most common words to describe the Labour Party were hopeful, progress, optimistic although frustrated did feature! It’s clear that cost-of-living remains a policy priority for many along with economic stability and good public services. Note that nearly 70% of survey replies came from those who had joined over five years ago and of those less than 10% were active. Probably an accurate snapshot of our membership.
Prime Ministers Report
The Iran conflict continues to shape much of the day to day joys of being PM but his main task is de escalation, de escalation. The frustration is that the economic impact of the war is impacting negatively on the economic headroom the chancellor had created through inflation coming down. Having said that energy bills for millions of British households are set to fall from 1 April 2026, and the minimum wage is set to go up next week.He also mentioned the Pride of Place initiative that will see up to £5 billion given to nearly 250 areas across the UK.
Questions were taken on a number of issues including the EU [closer ties with the war] and shortages of staff for the fire brigades.
Anna Turley: Chair of the Labour Party
led a long discussion on the forthcoming local elections as well as mentioning Operation Second Term. The locals are big elections for us – the cost of living, the economy and the NHS will feature as national issues but locally it is housing, street cleanliness, flytipping, roads and potholes that are key issues.
Reform continues to receive significant funding – £12m from one donor. However we hope that new legislation will turn off the tap. We also need a reality check about how much of a dent Reform will be in the long run. Previous local election results show at this point in the cycle it’s not good for incumbent government [ look at 2003]. Look also at UKIP showing in local elections and then how they fared in 2015.
We need to show they are NOT the party of the working people and we must undermine their credibility in terms of ability to govern. Similarly the Greens are untried but are in danger of becoming overtly populist. I asked how we can counter them from a policy perspective as this is where they are gaining ground [not on campaigning because we are still the best party with the ground war]. I asked for more positive material in the Campaign shop on climate and nature. I also suggested we revisit the doorstep app and refine to capture some more details on the don’t knows. One of the things that came out of Gorton was how late voters were deciding which way to vote – many on the last 2 days.
Of course the squeeze message works until it doesn’t. We need to know what message is moving the vote and also to tap into the fact that people need hope.
We finished the meeting with an extended report from Wales led by Joe Locke and Huw Iranca-Davies. Welsh Labour recognise they are in for the fight of their lives but are seeking to defy the odds. Again it will be cost-of-living that will feature and the Party will also focus on NHS, jobs for the future, and protecting the planet [clean water and an energy efficient Wales].
With new voting system using the D’Hondt method means that small shifts in the vote can massively impact the outcome. But with increasing volatility and a new system the ability target is different so the approach will be a broad level of campaigning across all seats.