Row over union leader’s role in Labour contest
ASPECIAL Welsh Labour conference that will determine the voting method used to elect the next First Minister will be chaired by a woman who lives and works in England.
Margaret Thomas, who chairs Labour’s Welsh Executive Committee (WEC), was until May the Wales Secretary of Unison.
Since then, however, she has been promoted to the post of Assistant General Secretary. She is now attached to the union’s headquarters staff in London.
Earlier this year, after she was elected chair of the WEC, we revealed that Ms Thomas lives not in Wales, but in Bolton, Greater Manchester, where she is a magistrate.
A Plaid Cymru spokeswoman said: “Not only does the chair of Welsh Labour who will be presiding over this special conference live outside Wales, she has recently been appointed Assistant General Secretary of Unison meaning that she will no doubt be spending even more time in London.
“Labour have always been comfortable with the Westminster elite making key decisions affecting Wales. It seems that this bizarre support for outside interference now extends to their internal processes.
“Wales needs a government that understands and respects our communities’ unique needs and challenges.
“This is just the latest reminder that a branch office of a London party just isn’t up to the job.”
Former Bridgend council Labour leader and political commentator Jeff Jones said: “Although Margaret Thomas was elected for a year, you might have thought given the significance of the special conference that she would have stood down and let the vice chair take over.”
Carwyn Jones has announced that he will be standing down as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister before the end of the year.
Welsh Labour’s special conference, to be held in Cardiff on September 15, will decide which electoral system will be used to elect his successor.
Currently leaders and deputy leaders of Welsh Labour are elected by a three-way electoral college comprising grassroots party members, MPs and AMs, and members of trade unions and other affiliated groups.
Many grassroots members favour a move to OMOV (one member, one vote), the system used to elect the leaders of UK Labour and Scottish Labour and seen as more democratic.
The votes of MPs and AMs are worth hundreds of times more than individual party members, while the turnout among trade union and other affiliates in this year’s Welsh Labour deputy leadership election was a derisory 4.7%.
Despite winning convincingly among grassroots members, Cardiff North AM Julie Morgan lost to Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris, who won in the other two sections of the ballot.
The outcome of the special conference remains unclear. Many constituency parties have already decided to support OMOV. But while the union Unite will also back OMOV, other unions want a variation of the electoral college. John Phillips, GMB regional secretary, said: “GMB’s history and traditions are steeped in the spirit of solidarity, collectivism, and representative democracy.
“Alongside our sister unions CWU, Usdaw and Unison, our members have made it clear they believe the best way for unions to maintain and mature our relationship with the Welsh Labour Party is to retain an electoral college that cements our place as active players with a strong influence on the leadership of Welsh Labour movement.”