Unite union key to Welsh Labour’s new votes system

AN HISTORIC change that will see Carwyn Jones’ successor as Welsh Labour leader elected on a “one member, one vote” (OMOV) basis was only passed because Unite the union changed its policy on which voting system should be used, we can reveal.

If Unite had voted the other way, the party would have been stuck with a variation of the controversial electoral college it has used in previous elections – even though there was overwhelming support for a change to OMOV from local members.

The party held a special conference in Cardiff on Saturday from which the media was excluded.

Previous Welsh Labour leaders have been elected by a controversial electoral college, under which grassroots members held just one third of the votes.

A further third was held by MPs, AMs and the party’s MEP, with the rest going to trade unions and other bodies affiliated to the Labour Party.

Within the party, there has been concern for 20 years about the workings of the electoral college.

Around 20 years ago, Rhodri Morgan was defeated for the leadership of the party by Alun Michael, even though Mr Morgan won the members’ section of the electoral college comfortably.

Then in April this year, Mr Morgan’s widow Julie Morgan, the AM for Cardiff North, lost the party’s deputy leadership contest to Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris in identical circumstances.

Under the electoral college, an elected politician’s vote was worth more than 400 times that of an ordinary member, while extremely low turnouts in the affiliates’ section of the electoral college – just 4.7% in this year’s deputy leadership election – gave disproportionate power to relatively small numbers of people.

Also, individuals could have multiple votes if they belonged to a number of affiliated unions and other groups – Swansea East AM Mike Hedges revealed that he had seven votes in the deputy leadership election.

Pressure has been mounting for a change to OMOV since Carwyn Jones announced he was standing down as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister earlier this year.

Former Welsh and Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Paul Murphy was asked to set out options for the party before Saturday’s special conference. He suggested two possibilities: a move to OMOV or a two-section electoral college with ordinary members getting half the votes and the rest going to trade unionists and members of other affiliated groups.

Despite a recommendation from Labour’s Welsh Executive Committee that delegates should back the slimmed-down electoral college option, they voted for OMOV overall by a margin of 64.1% to 35.9%.

Voting at the conference itself was done on the basis of a two-section electoral college, with half the votes held by party units like Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and the other by unions and other affiliates.

Welsh Labour has not released a breakdown of the votes, but we have been provided with figures by a party source, showing that party units – CLPs and women’s forums – voted by 87% to 13% in favour of OMOV, while 58% of trade unions and affiliates backed the electoral college against 42% for OMOV. The aggregated totals of the two sections was enough to give OMOV a comfortable victory.

However, if Unite had stuck to its former policy of backing an electoral college, affiliates would have voted for that option by 93% to 7%, giving the electoral college an overall score of 53%.

A pro-OMOV Welsh Labour source said: “As Wales’ largest union, Unite had as many as 101 votes out of 274 in the affiliates’ section, giving them a significant say in the overall result.

“If United had voted for the electoral college instead of OMOV, the next Welsh Labour leader would have been elected by an electoral college.”

First Minister Carwyn Jones told conference delegates his personal preference was for the electoral college.

But Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford, whose victory in the forthcoming leadership election is now considered almost certain, welcomed the vote for OMOV, saying: “The good news is that we go into the contest in the autumn able to focus on the policies that matter to people in our party, rather than how the election is to be conducted.”

The leadership result will be announced in December.