With the Leadership, Deputy Leadership and Scottish Deputy Leadership elections all happening at once, it's easy to forget that another set of crucial internal Labour elections are taking place too: The NEC by-elections. While seismic change might be on its way in terms of the leadership, there's no point electing a leader who wants to change Labour for the better if we don't give them an NEC willing to back them up.
Some of the worst excesses of the Hard Left dominated Labour Party in the last four years have been the direct result of NEC decisions (or the lack of an NEC decision); Antisemitism cases piling up with no real action in sight, dragging our heels adopting the IHRA antisemitism definition while causing massive damage to our relationship with the Jewish community, and imposing Parliamentary candidates (one of whom was an NEC member) on safe seats with no votes from local members.
It's clear we need real change. Labour First are backing Johanna Baxter a trade union official, experienced Labour Party activist and Cunninghame North CLP Chair, and Gurinder Singh Josan, a trade union branch secretary, Vice-chair of Sikh's for Labour and committed anti-racism activist for the CLP section. For BAME members representative, we're supporting Carol Sewell. Carol is a senior trade unionist with more than 20 years experience, a member of UNISON's NEC, and Chair of their Black Members Committee. She's backed by UNISON, USDAW and Community.
You can help their campaign by encouraging people to vote for them through Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.