‘Conference will decide how to elect party leader’

THE trade union official who has led the campaign against “One Member, One Vote” (OMOV) leadership elections in Welsh Labour says he believes it likely that a special conference of the party will be held in September to determine how Carwyn Jones’ successor will be chosen.

Mike Payne, the Welsh political officer for the GMB union, said he was personally against a special conference, but thought it would be necessary to hold one to stop “months of rancour” within the party.

The way Welsh Labour elects its next leader could determine who becomes the next First Minister after Mr Jones steps down later this year.

Currently the leader is elected by an electoral college, under which ordinary members have one third of the votes, another third are reserved for MPs, AMs and the party’s MEP, while the rest go to members of affiliated unions and other organisations.

Supporters of Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford, so far the only declared candidate in the leadership contest, have argued that the electoral college is unfair and undemocratic because the vote of an elected politician is worth nearly 400 times that of an ordinary party member.

Concerns about the electoral college increased last month when Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris was elected deputy leader of Welsh Labour despite losing heavily to Cardiff North AM Julie