The Labour Party Conference, or annual national conference of the Labour Party, is formally the supreme decision-making body of the Party. The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the main left-wing political party of the United Kingdom. ...

Conference decisions

In the United Kingdom, each major political party holds an annual party conference during the party conference season. In the Labour Party, Conference is the supreme body, although the party leadership has made clear, particularly in recent years, that it will ignore the conference's decisions where it does not agree; constitutionally, a British government must be free to make decisions on behalf of the whole population and cannot be bound by any private body. In the United Kingdom the party conference season refers to the period of three weeks in September and October of each year which contains the annual political party conferences. ...

Delegates

Delegates to the conference are elected by Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. Currently, affiliates hold 50% of the votes at the conference - down from 80% in the era before Tony Blair, but still considerable. Some 40% of the votes are wielded by the four largest trade unions (Amicus, TGWU, GMB, UNISON). A Constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. ... In British politics, the term affiliated trade union refers to a trade union that has an affiliation to the British Labour Party. ... A Socialist Society is a membership organization which is affiliated to the Labour Party. ... Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the UK Civil Service, Leader of the UK Labour Party, and Member of the UK Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield in North East England. ... Amicus is Britains second largest trade union, formed by the merger of MSF (Manufacturing Science and Finance) and the AEEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union) agreed in 2001. ... The Transport and General Workers Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, is the largest general trade union in the United Kingdom, with 900,000 members. ... The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom, and has more than 700,000 members. ... UNISON logo UNISON is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom, with over 1. ...

Resolutions

Resolutions for debate are put forward by CLPs and unions before the conference begins. In recent years, party members have had less say in what is debated at the annual conference, as the party leadership has tried to move policy-making increasingly into the new National Policy Forums, which meet in private.

Role of the NEC

The National Executive Committee oversees the conference and if it does not agree with a resolution, the committee may put pressure on the backers to withdraw or remit it. Remittance means that the resolution's backers agree to "send back" the resolution to the National Executive so that it can consider the matter in more detail; this is viewed by some as a mere delaying tactic. The resolutions voted upon are normally composites, meaning that they have been compiled by combining several resolutions put forward by different bodies into a single wording agreed beforehand. The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the Labour Party. ...

Comparisons

Many critics argue that the Labour Party Conference has become less democratic in recent years and more like a party rally; some would compare it disparagingly with the American party conventions, which are perceived in the UK in those terms. Others would say that, because divisions in a party are unpopular electorally, it has been to the party's advantage to move disputes behind closed doors; they would also argue that the Labour Conference is more democratic than that of the rival Conservative Party, which political scientists have traditionally perceived as a more top-down or hierarchical party than Labour. Speeches by important party figures are key features of the convention; here, former President Jimmy Carter addresses the 2004 Democratic National Convention. ... The Conservative Party is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting MPs, and the largest by of public membership. ...

Recent and forthcoming conferences

1998 Blackpool

BBC News Coverage

1999 Bournemouth

BBC News Coverage

2000 Brighton

BBC News Coverage

2001 Brighton

BBC News Coverage

2002 Blackpool

BBC News Coverage

2003 Bournemouth

BBC News Coverage

2004 Brighton

The 2004 party conference was held in Brighton during the final week of September. Conference rejected a call for withdrawal from Iraq, but accepted a resolution calling for renationalization of the railways; the leadership declared that it would ignore this. Conference closed with the singing of The Red Flag and Jerusalem. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Brighton is a town on the south coast of England, which together with its immediate neighbour Hove forms the city of Brighton & Hove. ... The red flag is a socialist emblem associated in particular with the revolutionary left as well as with social democratic and labour traditions having been a banner used by parties such as Labour in Britain, the Socialist Party in France and other social democratic and democratic socialist groups throughout the... And did those feet in ancient time is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton: a Poem (1804). ...

BBC News Coverage

2005 Brighton

BBC News Coverage

2006 Manchester

In 2006 the conference will be held in Manchester at the G-Mex and Manchester International Conference Centre from the 24th to the 28th of September. It is the first time in "living memory" that the main Labour conference is not being held at a seaside town. This follows Labour's Spring 2004 local government conference which was held at the G-Mex for the first time. A mass demonstration has been organised to take place outside the conference on the 23rd of September, with organisers hoping for over a million people to protest. 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The City of Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in the North of England, historically notable for its central role in the Industrial Revolution. ... Seaside, the marine shoreline of a Sea, may refer to one of several communities, including: Seaside, Oregon Seaside, California Seaside, Florida This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... 23rd September Demonstration The Time to Go demonstration is a national demonstration called by the Stop The War Coalition, CND and the Muslim Association of Britain. ...

2007 Cardiff

Links

Labour Party official website