NEC Sub Committee – 21st October

The Sub Committees I’m a member of met on Tuesday so I was down in London all day. The women’s race and equality committee had Phil Woolas MP and immigration minister along to outline what the Government is doing on immigration policy. It’s a balancing act of some proportion to juggle the competing needs and views involved. I raised the question of women being trafficked for sex. Many came to this country for a better future, possibly working in an office and instead are forced in to prostitution and threatened with deportation if they attempt to contact the police. Phil promised to look in to the matter in more detail and get back.

We considered the success of events at conference and received reports on the work of the various equality and faith task forces etc. It was good to hear how much work the LGBT Labour group are up to. To process a range of membership and rules issues around the country and for once I got out of it without picking up and NEC panel to chair. In the afternoon we had the organisation committee, again dealing with a wide range of issues for Labour on how to raise the contract rate in strong Labour seats.

There was discussion about the euro campaign which is being steered by Gary Titly MEP. We then considered Parliamentary selections – 90% of seats now have a candidate with 31 of the remaining 64 under way.