Elections Bill Win

After months of campaigning with allies across civil society and the movement, we have won 2 big victories on the Elections Bill.

There were two Clauses we had been campaigning hard on, because they posed a real threat to the right of unions to campaign – and thanks to hard work from campaigners and the strong support of the Labour team in the House of Lords we’ve won on both of them.

• The Bill was going to give the Secretary of State the power to remove the right of categories of organisation to campaign in elections. This risked unions’ right to campaign and was a huge threat to freedom of speech. It was also a risk to charities and other organisations who campaign at election time. But they have stepped back. The Government are going to amend the Bill to say this power can only be used on the recommendation of the Electoral Commission. The devil will be in the detail, but this is a substantial safeguard against misuse of this power by a future Government.
• The Bill also included new rules on joint campaigning that could have made Labour’s affiliated unions liable for Labour campaign expenditure. This risked unions’ right to campaign as independent organisations, and put the union-Labour link at risk. The Government are going to delete this Clause in its entirety. This is a huge win for unions and the link, and for the voice of working people in politics.

Thanks to the dedication of our movement and the hard work of our supporters, we’ve achieved a huge victory. Of course, there are still changes to the Election Bill that we’ll continue to fight for – from stopping their Voter ID plans driving down participation, to protecting the independence of the Electoral Commission.

Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign – it’s so nice to be able to share a big win like this with you, and it shows just what we can achieve when we work together.