Newham Labour; Running Out of Women? Institutionally Sexist?

Would you believe it? Two hundred and thirty applicants to become councillors and Newham Labour seem to have run out of women.

It seems that the Labour Party has decided to assert a longstanding, but not universally applied rule, that party members who apply to sit on the council must be a member of a recognized trades union. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is part of the historic link between the party and the trade union movement, and whilst the closeness of that link may be something of a romantic fiction now it is a part of the legacy of the labour movement.

What has caused some angst is that none of the applicants knew that it was going to be applied this time round.

Indeed, Labour has been recruiting a number of women of late and many of them come from minority communities and if they are in employed work, (and many aren’t) it is in the context of a family businesses. Others may work but in largely ununionized sectors or have no background in British trades unionism. They have all been struck out before reaching the first hurdle.

Our understanding is that some 120 applicants have been struck out for lack of trades union membership. The problem for Labour is that, with several women on the council standing down this year they now do not have enough women to fill 50% of the seats available. Oh dear. It seems that Labour has become institutionally sexist?

This is not the first time Labour has run out of women! Back in 2018, Plaistow South branch selected Neil Wilson, a veteran councillor and ward member for one of the three seats. They were then presented with two female candidates for the remaining two seats. Unfortunately, the members felt that neither of the female candidates were suitable, (euphemistic understatement) which became something of an embarrassment for the party. With weeks to go before the election the local Labour Party had to scramble round and recruit more female candidates, before imposing them on the hapless membership.

And then there was 2014, when a certain Rokhsana Fiaz was the very last candidate chosen in the very last seat, simply because there was no-one else left.