Frustrated Labour party members seek equal rights

Labour Party members in Northern Ireland may set up their own society in a bid to shame the leadership into setting up constituency associations there, it emerged today.

Belfast-based trade unionist Andy McGivern confirmed that people who joined the party in the North after it overturned its 79-year ban on Northern Ireland members are to discuss the proposal at a public meeting in Belfast next month.

The GMB member told PA News: “Card-carrying members are being asked to gather at the Ulster People‘s College on June 5 and consider setting up a society like the Irish Society.

“Obviously we will be discussing the refusal of the party leadership to allow us to organise constituency parties.

“It is a great source of frustration to many members that the party they have always supported will not grant them the same rights as Labour members in England, Scotland and Wales.”

Delegates at Labour‘s annual conference in Bournemouth last October overturned the ban on Northern Ireland members after Mr McGivern threatened to take the party to court on the grounds that it was race discrimination.

However, while people can be members of the party in the North, they cannot set up constituency associations – preventing them from sending delegates to the annual conference or contesting local government elections.

Mr McGivern, with the backing of the GMB, has therefore begun moves for a new legal action, again accusing Labour of discrimination.

An estimated 100 people have joined the party in Northern Ireland since the lifting of the membership ban.

Among those expected to take part in the June 7 meeting will be Baroness Blood, who took the Labour whip in the House of Lords after the ban was lifted, and Boyd Black, who has long campaigned for the party to organise in the North.

Mr McGivern said today that Labour members in the North wanted to give voters a cross-community alternative to the tribal politics of Northern Ireland.

“Grassroots Labour members wanted to get on with that job and be able to embark on a proper recruitment drive,” he said.

“It is with great regret that I am having to go back down the route of taking the party to court to secure what should be ours as of right.

“And again, Labour members and trade unionists in England, Wales and Scotland are astounded when they are told the party won‘t let colleagues in Northern Ireland set up constituency associations.

“This is a matter of principle and we are going to continue the fight until the leadership grant us this basic right.”