Time to rally round #Grassroots5 for NEC

Constituency Labour Party nominations for candidates for election to the National Executive Committee, the party’s governing body, are in. The #Grassroots5 slate – Jessica Barnard, chair of Young Labour; sitting NEC members Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar and Mish Rahman, and JVL’s Media Officer Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi – has demonstrated support from around the country.

#Grassroots5 is supported by almost all groupings within the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance as well as a growing number of respected socialists who have publicly endorsed it (see below). These include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Diane Abbott MP, Christine Blower (Labour peer and former NUT general secretary), Jumbo Chan (co-founder of Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors), Ruth Hayes (chair of Labour Women Leading), actors Maxine Peake and Miriam Margolyes, anti-apartheid campaigner Andrew Feinstein and Louise Regan, a national officer of both the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and National Education Union.

We need to gain the maximum number of seats for dedicated socialists on the NEC.  Help the left to win by campaigning for #Grassroots5!

The party will be circulating 200-word candidate statements to all members when the ballots start to go out on July 25 (not July 8 as originally advertised). Here is Naomi’s statement.

NAOMI WIMBORNE-IDRISSI

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It’s a privilege to have my name on the ballot in this election, as one of the Grassroots Five candidates supported by Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and other leading socialists. They recognise that we need strong voices on Labour’s governing body – activists with a track record of standing up for radical policies that can transform society and change people’s lives for the better, and standing up for grassroots party members.

As an officer of Jewish Voice for Labour, I’ve been fighting that fight for the last few years – defending victims of racist abuse and those unjustly accused of antisemitism, defending freedom of speech and the right to campaign for justice for Palestinians, opposing unjust disciplinary procedures and the imposition of bans and proscriptions, fighting for a party in which political differences are resolved in a spirit of mutual respect and solidarity.

I’ve been an active trade unionist in the NUJ and NUT (now NEU) all my adult life and an anti-racist campaigner for human rights and global justice since my teens. If elected I commit to open communication with members and to working collaboratively with likeminded NEC members, in particular trade union reps.

Vote Wimborne-Idrissi, Barnard, Bolton, Dar, Rahman.

117 CLPs have nominated Naomi. They are listed below these endorsements:

CLPS NOMINATING NAOMI WIMBORNE-IDRISSI

Aberconwy CLP

Arundel and South Downs CLP

Basildon and Billericay CLP

Bedford CLP

Bethnal Green and Bow CLP

Birkenhead CLP

Birmingham, Hall Green CLP

Bishop Auckland CLP

Blyth Valley CLP

Bolton West CLP

Brecon and Radnorshire CLP

Brent Central CLP

Brent North CLP

Bromsgrove CLP

Bury North CLP

Bury St Edmunds CLP

Caerphilly CLP

Calder Valley CLP

Camberwell and Peckham CLP

Cardiff West CLP

Ceredigion CLP

Chesham and Amersham CLP

Chingford and Woodford Green CLP

Chipping Barnet CLP

Christchurch CLP

Cities of London and Westminster CLP

City of Durham CLP

Clwyd South CLP

Colchester CLP

Crewe and Nantwich CLP

Croydon Central CLP

Dover CLP

Dundee City East CLP

Dundee City West CLP

Dwyfor Meirionnydd CLP

Easington CLP

East Hampshire CLP

East Yorkshire CLP

Edinburgh Central CLP

Ellesmere Port and Neston CLP

Erith and Thamesmead CLP

Glasgow Kelvin CLP

Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn CLP

Greenwich and Woolwich CLP

Guildford CLP

Hackney North and Stoke Newington CLP

Hackney South and Shoreditch CLP

Hazel Grove CLP

Hemsworth CLP

Hexham CLP

Hornsey and Wood Green CLP

Horsham CLP

Isle of Wight CLP

Islington North CLP

Islington South and Finsbury CLP

Kensington CLP

Labour International

Lancaster and Fleetwood CLP

Leeds Central CLP

Leeds North East CLP

Leeds North West CLP

Leeds West CLP

Leyton and Wanstead CLP

Liverpool Walton CLP

Manchester Gorton CLP

Manchester Withington CLP

Mid Bedfordshire CLP

Mid Sussex CLP

Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland CLP

Monmouth CLP

Montgomeryshire CLP

Morley and Outwood CLP

North East Cambridgeshire CLP

North West Durham CLP

Norwich South CLP

Nottingham East CLP

Ogmore CLP

Orpington CLP

Oxford West and Abingdon CLP

Pendle CLP

Penistone and Stocksbridge CLP

Penrith and the Border CLP

Poole CLP

Portsmouth North CLP

Portsmouth South CLP

Richmond Park CLP

Rochester and Strood CLP

Rochford and Southend East CLP

Rotherham CLP

Rushcliffe CLP

Sedgefield CLP

Sheffield Central CLP

Sheffield Heeley CLP

Skipton and Ripon CLP

Sleaford and North Hykeham CLP

South Dorset CLP

South East Cornwall CLP

South Staffordshire CLP

South West Wiltshire CLP

Southport CLP

Stratford-On-Avon CLP

Stretford and Urmston CLP

Stroud CLP

Sutton and Cheam CLP

Sutton Coldfield CLP

Swansea West CLP

Thirsk and Malton CLP

Torridge and West Devon CLP

Tottenham CLP

Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP

Wallasey CLP

Warwick and Leamington CLP

Wells CLP

Wimbledon CLP

Wirral South CLP

Wirral West CLP

Witney CLP

Worthing West CLP