The
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
...
of the Labour Party oversees the
whipping system in the party, which is responsible for ensuring that
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MPs or
members of the House of Lords
This is a list of members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Current sitting members
Lords Spiritual
26 bishops of the Church of England sit in the House of Lords: the Archbishops of Canterbury and ...
attend and vote in
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in the desired way of the
party leadership. Chief Whips, of which two are appointed in the party, a member of the House of Commons and a member of the House of Lords, also help to organise their party's contribution to parliamentary business. The Chief Whip manages a team of whips, who they may appoint from the
Parliamentary Labour Party, to support the work of the whips’ office.
The party leadership may allow members to have a
free vote, based on their own decision, rather than party policy, which means the chief whip is not required to influence the way members vote.
The role of Chief Whip is regarded as secretive, as the Whip is concerned with the discipline of their own party's Members of Parliament.
By convention, Chief Whips do not sign
early day motions
In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House a ...
or table questions to Ministers. Nor do they give media interviews in their capacity as whip.
This is a list of those people who have served as
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
...
of the
Labour Party in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
.
House of Commons
Current Deputy Chief Whip
*
Lilian Greenwood
Lilian Rachel Greenwood (born 26 March 1966) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham South since 2010, and the Opposition Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Commons since 2021.
A former unio ...
House of Lords
Deputy Chief Whip
See also
*
Chief Whip of the Conservative Party
*
Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats
References
* Chris Cook and Brendan Keith, ''British Historical Facts 1830-1900'', Macmillan, 1975
* David Butler and Gareth Butler, ''Twentieth-Century British Historical Facts 1900-2000'', Macmillan, 2000
{{UK Labour Party
Organisation of the Labour Party (UK)
Political whips