In the past few weeks I have been inundated with messages from Labour members concerned about the state of their CLP’s finances.

A stark example of this was one CLP with only £50 in the bank and no office or premises after the General Election.

And a survey of over 700 Labour members across the country found that under 50% of CLPs have any premises at all.

Something definitely needs to be done about this.

There have been several articles written about how Labour must rebuild in its heartlands through better interaction and engagement with communities. These are just a few: Labour’s Way Forward: The Only Way is (Bottom) Up, Rebuidling the Red Bases, Labour has problems in its ‘heartlands’ – but only grassroots work can rebuild trust.

There are plenty of ideas for how Labour could go about re-engaging and winning back support, but none of them mention how this can be paid for.

Labour’s existing model does not give the grassroots the funds to make any impression with local communities. Every year, the central office of the Labour Party takes £47 per member while the CLPs take £2.50. 

CLPs need to take a fair share of their members’ subscriptions to make things work at grassroots level.

That’s why I am putting forward a constitutional motion to this year’s party conference calling for 50% of members’ subscription money to go to local parties and the rest to go to the national office.

The motion is here:

Replace Membership Rules, Clause IV, 7. with

‘7. In order to support CLP’s community engagement, while also providing for national and regional resources, each CLP will receive 50% of their member’s subscription fees.’

The deadline for all constitutional motions is Friday 12th June so there is very little time to get this idea out to CLPs across the country.

Would you like me to visit your CLP to talk about the motion? In the next six months I am planning visits across the country and am also writing a book about the state of Labour’s grassroots.

Can you help with the costs of this campaign? I have set up a Patreon account, where I am offering exclusive updates on the campaign in return for monthly contributions, and have also set up a Paypal account for anyone interested in making a one-off donation.

The Patreon page is here and the Paypal link is below: