Talks over Welsh Labour vote

INTENSIVE talks are expected to take place over the next three months aimed at reaching a resolution of the disagreement over how Welsh Labour elects its leader.

On Saturday the party’s Welsh Executive Committee decided to hold a special conference on September 15 at which delegates will debate whether a variation of the existing “electoral college” voting system should be used to choose Carwyn Jones’ successor, or whether there should be a move to “one member, one vote” (OMOV).

There is much dissatisfaction among party members about the current electoral college, under which ordinary members of the party have just a third of the votes, with a further third reserved for MPs, AMs and Welsh Labour’s MEP, and the remainder for members of trade unions and other bodies affiliated to Labour.

An elected politician’s vote is worth more than 400 times that of an ordinary party member.

But four leading unions are resisting a switch to OMOV, arguing it is important that the historic link between unions and the Labour Party should be maintained – even though Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard were elected leaders of UK Labour and Scottish Labour in OMOV ballots.

One suggested compromise is that the electoral college should be comprised of two sections rather than three, with the “super-votes” of elected politicians scrapped.

Under such an arrangement, ordinary members of the party would have 50% of the vote in a leadership election, with the other 50% going to trade unions and other affiliates.

At September’s special conference, 50% of the votes will be held by party units – mainly constituency Labour parties – with the rest allocated to unions and other affiliated bodies. Mr Jones is standing down as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister in December. The only potential candidate to have secured the required five nominations from fellow AMs is Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford. Health Secretary Vaughan Gething is also likely to be on the ballot paper.