Young Labour is the youth section of the UK Labour Party. Membership is automatic for Labour Party members aged 14 to 26. It exists to involve young people in the Labour Party and ensure that the aspirations of young people are reflected in Labour's policies in power. Young Labour members are able to get involved in the Labour Party through local policy events, campaigning or by attending events and social gatherings. Young Labour hosts an annual conference, alternating between national committee elections and policy conferences every other year. Young Labour also holds a range of additional national events, including fringe sessions at the annual

Labour Party Conference The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when the ...

. Young Labour is affiliated to both the

International Union of Socialist Youth The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) is an international organization, founded in 1907, whose activities include publications, support of member organizations and the organization of meetings. It was formed as the youth wing of the S ...

(IUSY) and

Young European Socialists Young European Socialists (YES), formerly the European Community Organisation of Socialist Youth (ECOSY), is an association of social democratic youth organisations in Europe and the European Union. YES is the youth organisation of the Party ...

(YES).

History

Throughout much of the 20th century, younger members of the Labour party were represented first by the Labour

League of Youth The Labour League of Youth was the youth organisation of the British Labour Party from 1926 to the 1960s.Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike. ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements ...

and later by the

Labour Party Young Socialists The Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) was the youth section of the Labour Party in Britain from 1965 until 1991. In the 1980s, it had around 600 branches, 2,000 delegates at its national conferences and published a monthly newspaper, ''Socia ...

. These organisations often positioned themselves on the left of the party and frequently had a difficult relationship with its leadership. The latter of these groups went into decline in the late 1980s after reforms were made to make it more manageable and closed down entirely in 1991. Young Labour was founded in 1993 by a Labour Party annual conference motion in Brighton, proposed by Tom Watson, seconded by Brian Whitington, then Chair of the

, and supported by then

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

Youth Representative

Claire Ward Claire Margaret Ward (born 9 May 1972) is a Labour Party politician. She served as the Member of Parliament for Watford from 1997 to 2010, and was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice from 2009 to 2010. Early li ...

. In October 2017, Young Labour passed a motion at their annual conference which called for Britain to withdraw from NATO. In May 2018, the organisation started a digital campaign against then-Labour MP

Chuka Umunna Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (UK), Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham (UK Parliament constituency), Streatham from 2010 United Kingdom general election, ...

after it was revealed that he employed university students to be unpaid interns. The campaign, "#PayUpChuka', led to the Labour leadership briefing the

Parliamentary Labour Party In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...

that employing unpaid interns runs contrary to Labour's 2017 general election manifesto. In October 2018, Young Labour voted to make Brazilian labour leader

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist, and former metalworker who is the president-elect of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Party, ...

its honorary president. On 25 February 2022, Labour Party leader

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

scrapped Young Labour's annual conference in response to activists from the youth section criticising his backing for

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. The tweets from earlier in February condemned Starmer for his "celebrating" of closer cooperation with NATO while he was also "attacking

Stop the War The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars. The Coalition has c ...

and other pro-peace activists." Some of the statements from Young Labour were cited as follows: It was also announced that Young Labour's funding would be cut in response to the comments, whilst its Twitter account was restricted by the party for what was described as breaches of acceptable "standards of behaviour". The move was condemned as bullying by Young Labour's elected chair Jessica Barnard, who also said it may drive young people away from Labour. An article from '' The Canary'' dubbed the move "Keir Starmer's latest authoritarian crackdown." The Labour party's

shadow foreign secretary In UK politics, the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs is a position within the opposition's shadow cabinet that deals mainly with issues surrounding the Foreign Office. If elected, the person serving as ...

David Lammy David Lindon Lammy (born 19 July 1972) is an English politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenh ...

described Young Labour's views as "lazy knee-jerk"

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...

and said that "They don't speak on behalf the party."

Membership

Members of the Labour Party aged 14 to 26 are automatically members of Young Labour.

Structure

Young Labour National Committee

The Young Labour National Committee acts as the executive of the organisation. It includes a chair, the

(NEC) youth rep, an international officer, an under-18s representative, four liberation officers, ten trade union reps, three

Labour Students Labour Students is a student organisation within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. It is a network of affiliated college and university clubs, known as Labour Clubs, who campaign in their campuses and communities for Labour's values of e ...

reps, 1 socialist society rep and 11 national and regional reps. In addition, the Labour Party appoints a permanent secretary to act as facilitator,

National Policy Forum The National Policy Forum (NPF) of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process. A Provisional National Policy Forum had been established by Bl ...

youth reps appoint a vice chair (policy).

Chair of Young Labour

Between 1991 and 2009 the Chair of Young Labour was appointed by the Labour Party. Reforms passed by the Labour Party's annual conference saw the creation of a democratically elected chair, voted for by delegates at Young Labour's national conference, to serve a two-year term. The first election took place in 2009. In late 2017 the Labour Party's NEC changed the system so that the Chair of Young Labour is elected by a one-member-one-vote ballot of young members. It was reported that over 7,000 young members voted in the 2018 election.

Elected chairs of Young Labour

* 2009–2011:

Sam Tarry Samuel Peter Tarry (; born 27 August 1982) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 11 October 2022 he was deselected ...

* 2011–13: Susan Nash * 2013–16: Simon Darvill * 2016–18: Caroline Hill * 2018–2020: Miriam Mirwitch * 2020-2022: Jessica Barnard * Since 2022: Nabeela Mowlana

National Executive Committee Youth Rep

Delegates at Young Labour's national conference also elected the Youth Rep to sit on the Labour Party's NEC. The election operated under an electoral college, with a third of the vote for young member delegates, a third for Labour Students delegates, and a third for delegates from affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. For the 2018 election, the system was changed, with half of the vote allocated to young members through a one-member-one-vote ballot and half allocated to block votes by affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. * 1991–1995:

* 1995–1997: Catherine Taylor * 1997–1999, Sarah Ward * 1999–2001: Claire McCarthy * 2001–2003:

Blair McDougall Blair McDougall is a Scottish political adviser in the British Labour Party. He is best known as head strategist to the Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Career He was educated at the University of Gl ...

* 2003–2005:

Jonathan Reynolds Jonathan Neil Reynolds (born 28 August 1980) is a British politician. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative, Labour and Co-operative parties, he has ...

* 2007–2011:

Stephanie Peacock Stephanie Louise Peacock is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union official. She became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley East at the 2017 general election. She retained her seat in the 2019 general election, with a ...

* 2011–2013: Callum Munro * 2013–2016: Bex Bailey * 2016–2018: Jasmin Beckett * 2018-2022: Lara McNeill * Since 2022: Elsie Greenwood

Current Committee

Local groups

Young Labour groups exist at the local, regional, national, and international level, supporting the activity of the wider Labour Party and feeding in to Young Labour through its national committee. The national groups are: * Scottish Young Labour * Welsh Young Labour * Young Labour NI * Young Labour International

References

External links

* {{UK Labour Party Labour Party (UK) Organisation of the Labour Party (UK)

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 ...

Youth wings of social democratic parties