Hain slams “exclusive” party policy
Labour’s leader of the House of Commons has attacked the party’s policy making process, describing it as exclusive and declaring that party members must feel more involved in developing policy.
In a surprising pamphlet, entitled Future Party, for the left wing Catalyst thinktank, Peter Hain claimed that the National Policy Forum (NPF) was “losing credibility” with activists.
The Welsh secretary highlighted the recent vote on university tuition fees, which prompted a huge backbench rebellion, and suggested that denying party members a say on important policies “bred resentment”.
“To remain a credible government we need to resolve disagreements without resorting to showdowns,” Mr Hain wrote.
He pointed out that neither the proposals for top-up fees nor the foundation hospitals bill had been through the party’s policy-making process and so had seemed to party members to have “dropped out of the clear blue sky”.
The minister also claimed that elections to the party’s youth wing had been manipulated to allow government supporters to win and accused the government of misrepresenting views expressed in local policy forums to give a more favourable impression.
Writing in The Guardian, Mr Hain argued that members believed the party’s internal system of policy forums, introduced ten years ago by Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, was designed to neuter rather than empower them.
He suggested that the party should follow the Liberal Democrats’ lead and set up groups to bring together party members, ministers and outside experts to look at specific issues.
“Parties inclusive enough to manage debates are winners. Parties spoilt by rancour, personality faction and division are losers,” Mr Hain declared. “It is time to open up the system, loosen the control and re-empower the party,”
“Over the past year we have made a deliberate effort to lose our image as centralised control freaks and engage more with party members,” he continued.
“While we have made great strides, we have still lagged behind the expectation of party members.
“Under the current policy process Labour MPs and party members do not feel ownership of new policy.”
Mr Hain said that he wanted policy proposals in future to be referred to Labour’s national policy forum (NPF) at an earlier stage.
