General Committee meeting (GC) - 25 November, 8pm

We'll be holding our next GC meeting on Thursday 25th November at the party offices starting at 8pm. Although this is a meeting of delegates elected by the branches, and other units affiliated to the CLP, we welcome any member* of the CLP, though of course if there is any business to be decided only delegates have a vote.

A full agenda is going to delegates today, but other members will also be interested to know about our guest speaker for this meeting:  Andrew Lewin –  a convert to Labour from the Lib Dems. At 23 Andrew was the youngest Lib Dem parliamentary candidate in England last May, and early this month, according to The Independent, the first such to walk out.

He accepted Clegg had had to deal with the Tories in May, but his "faith was shattered" by Clegg's support for trebling university tuition fees and dropping plans for a job or training guarantee for people out of work more than 90 days. The housing benefit cuts were "incredibly rushed" and it was "very dangerous" to reduce payments by 10 per cent just because someone had been on jobseeker's allowance for a year.

Andrew says he wants to play an active role in the Labour Party possibly standing for it at the next election. "I have a passion for politics. I am joining Labour because of Ed Miliband's leadership. He has set a direction of travel that can appeal across the spectrum, particularly to young people."



This will be a great chance to find out from a former insider how the Lib Dems work, how to counter their ‘ultra-local’ campaigning, how to ensure Labour is the ‘natural home’ of students, and maybe how we can encourage more of their numerous disaffected members to take his brave step.

* If you're not a member but are thinking of joining have a look at the 'Join Labour' tab at the top of the page