A ROW has erupted following the election of Carolyn Harris MP as the new deputy leader of the Labour Party in Wales.
And the row could have an impact on the election of Carwyn Jones’s successor to the post of leader and First Minister.
In an eerie echo of the way in which the late Rhodri Morgan was defeated for leadership of Labour in Wales 18 years ago, the membership of the party overwhelmingly backed his widow, Julie Morgan AM, but the votes of the union machine and Labour representatives went Carolyn Harris’ way.
The MP for Swansea East gained 51.5 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating Julie Morgan, Cardiff AM and former MP, to become the Welsh party’s first deputy leader.
Although Julie Morgan won a majority of party members’ votes, Carolyn Harris won amongst affiliated groups and elected representatives.
In the UK Labour Party, the leader and deputy leader are elected under one member one vote (OMOV); however, Labour in Wales has retained the Electoral College, which was widely criticised following the 2010 election for Labour leader that saw Ed Milliband returned as party leader.
There has been disquiet within the Labour Party over the system it uses for elections for some time, and the Welsh Labour Party is part of the way through a review of its Electoral College.
The vote was -
Affiliated groups including trade unions:
Harris – 20.14 per cent
Morgan – 13.19 per cent
Party members:
Harris – 11.6 per cent
Morgan – 21.73 per cent
MPs and AMs:
Harris – 19.75 per cent
Morgan – 13.58 per cent
Overall:
Harris – 51.5 per cent
Morgan – 48.5 per cent
Campaigning in the deputy leadership election centred upon the system used to elect the candidates. Carolyn Harris – backed by the unions – supported the existing system, while Julie Morgan supporting a change to one-member-one-vote.
The result is likely to strengthen calls for OMOV in Welsh Labour internal elections.
There was no sign of the fight being over after the election, when Julie Morgan tweeted: “The campaign for one member one vote continues.”
Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum and a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee tweeted: ‘The process was a travesty of democracy & insults the people of Wales. The Welsh Exec deliberately chose to limit members say to ⅓, they knew what they were doing. It’s called gerrymandering’.
The timing of Carwyn Jones’ announcement is also thought to be significant, as it would now require a rule change to switch the Electoral College system – perceived as a way of stitching up elections – to a wider vote of party members.
Following Carwyn Jones’ surprise decision to stand down in the autumn, battle lines have been drawn along the method chosen to elect the new leader, with potential candidates with strong links to unions – for example, the former President of the Wales TUC and transparently ambitious Vaughan Gething – altruistically supporting the status quo; while others have called for Labour in Wales to follow the UK party system, widely thought to favour more left wing candidates – for example, Mark Drakeford, who is more popular with rank and file members.
Indeed, as the week has progressed since Carwyn Jones’s announcement, Mark Drakeford has easily racked up more than enough AM nominations to succeed him as leader. The extent of the concern that some AMs have has been the coded call for ‘a more diverse field’, hoping to throw up a ‘Stop Drakeford’ candidate.
Mid and West Regional AM Eluned Morgan is thought to be the favourite of those seeking to prevent a coronation.
Eluned Morgan is a formidable political operator and is likely to have a far wider appeal than the other alternatives to Mark Drakeford, who seem so politically similar that they could have been designed by the same committee. Whether Ms Morgan is willing to place her name forward is open to question. While a further complication is that, as a regional AM, she is not in control of her own destiny and would likely need a safe constituency base for the next Assembly elections.
Signs of support for Ms Morgan are already evident.
An online petition has been launched calling for her name to be included on the ballot for leadership candidates. The petition’s supporters say that ‘For too long women have been overlooked in Welsh politics. Despite the many movements and campaigns to bring about equality, Wales of all the UK nations is unique in that it has never elected a woman leader’.
Add Comment