Labour conference: Sir Keir Starmer forced to drop leadership rule change

Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to drop changes to the way Labour elects its leaders after they were rejected by the party's left wing.

He had wanted to scrap one-member-one vote - but opponents said that would give Labour MPs too much say over who gets the top job.

Sir Keir is now hoping to get members to back a watered-down package of reforms in a conference vote on Sunday.

He says they will help the party win the next general election.

The row over Labour's constitution began earlier this week, when the leader proposed changing the way his successors would be chosen.

He had wanted to replace the current one-member-one-vote system with an "electoral college" system - abolished by predecessor Ed Miliband - under which Labour members would only account for a third of the votes in a future leadership contest.

MPs and unions would also each have made up a third of the votes.

But Sir Keir had to drop his proposals after he failed to persuade the big Labour-backing unions to support them.

Activist group Momentum called the proposed rule change "an MP veto by the backdoor", adding: "Handing this much power to a Westminster elite is the opposite of democracy."

Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) approved a diluted package of reforms earlier on Saturday, but they will also need to be agreed by party members.

The package includes:

These new plans were agreed by 22 votes to 12.

Speaking after the meeting at the party's conference in Brighton, Sir Keir said: "I'm very pleased these party reforms have got the backing of our NEC.

"These proposals put us in a better position to win the next general election and I hope constituency and trade union delegates will support them when they come to conference floor."

Sir Keir Starmer has got to project himself to sceptical voters outside the conference hall, but it looks as though internal rows will dominate this weekend.

He got the backing of his ruling national executive for a watered down package of reforms. But it is still a very significant package of reforms.

For example, in future leadership contests, in order to get onto the ballot in the first place, candidates will need the backing of 20% of MPs instead of 10%.

That may sound like a boring procedural change, but to put it into context, it would have meant last time round that Sir Keir would have been the only candidate and it would have prevented Jeremy Corbyn getting on the ballot in the first place.

Labour's left are absolutely infuriated by this and when it is debated on the conference floor, they will resist it.

So, while Sir Keir may want the story of the conference to focus on his efforts to be in touch with working people, it could be overshadowed by this row.

What's going on with Labour's row?

Sir Keir and predecessor Jeremy Corbyn were both elected under the one-member-one vote system - but plans to scrap it were seen on the left as an attempt to stop another radical left-wing candidate, like Mr Corbyn, winning the leadership again.

And unions seen as sympathetic to the party leader failed to back the proposals on Friday, meaning they could not go to a full vote at conference.

A source close to Sir Keir said that the leadership election reforms had not been presented to the party as "a take-it-or-leave-it deal", adding: "That's how we've approached it and we're pleased with where we've ended up."

Conference also voted by 59% 41% to keep David Evans, an ally of Sir Keir, as Labour's general secretary.

Many on the left had wanted to remove him and there were chants of "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn" within the hall as Mr Evans addressed delegates before the ballot was held.