Former Labour MP Harry Barnes has called for Labour’s leadership candidates to issue ‘Manifestos of Intent’ to explain their intended programme and help members decide who to vote for.
Barnes, the former MP for North East Derbyshire and author of left-wing blog ‘Three score years and ten’, is pressing Labour branches and constituencies to adopt a resolution to make such manifestos a requirement of any leadership hopeful.
“My local Constituency Labour Party is having a resolution submitted to it by one of its branches,” said Barnes. “If it is carried, it will be sent to the National Executive Committee for consideration. Others might like to press this matter via similar avenues.”
The resolution says:
‘Candidates for the position of Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party shall be required to issue “Manifestos Of Intent” of no less than 3,000 words to explain the programme that they would like the Labour Party to pursue and that these documents should be circulated to members of the Labour Party to help them determine how they will vote in the coming contests.’
Barnes’ local Labour members’ discussion group, centred around the Dronfield Blather blog, achieved some success in pushing for manifestos from the five candidates in the 2010 leadership contest.
“This was done late in the day and in an informal way,’ said Barnes. ‘This time we need the NEC to arrange for such manifestos to be issued systematically and in a prominent fashion.”
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Harry Barnes is a former Labour MP for North East Derbyshire and author of the blog ‘Three score years and ten’.
17 June 2015
John McDonnell, as Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign manager, has confirmed that Jeremy will be issuing a “Manifesto of Intent”. There has been no responses yet on behalf of the other leadership candidates.