Peter Willsman

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Peter Willsman is a British political activist who is a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and the secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.

Early life

Willsman worked for the National Union of Public Employees as a researcher.[1][2][3] As a delegate representing Canterbury's constituency party to Labour's 1976 conference, Willsman unsuccessfully moved a resolution to make comprehensive education compulsory by 1977, rather than maintaining a system with grammar schools and independent schools.[4]

Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

From the 1970s, Willsman has been a central member of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.[5][6] Willsman is the secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, a left-wing group that campaigns for more power to be given to party members.[7][8]

Labour Party committees

Every year between 1981 and 1994, Willsman was elected onto the Labour Party's Conference Arrangements Committee. He was described as one of the left wing of the party's "key strategists" in 1981, having focused on party constitutional issues rather than ideological issues.[9][10] In his time on this committee, Willsman had a reputation for his expertise on process.[6] Having lost his seat on this committee in 1994, he was elected to the party's disciplinary National Constitutional Committee in 1995.[5]

Willsman has been a long-term member of Labour's ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), whilst not serving continuously. He was first elected in 1998 on a Grassroots Alliance slate.[11] In 1999, as a member of the NEC, Willsman unsuccessfully supported Ron Davies's petition to be allowed a dual mandate to be selected as a candidate for his former Westminster seat whilst remaining a member of the National Assembly for Wales.[12]

Willsman's conduct on the NEC has been criticised by colleagues, with one describing him as an "embarrassment and a bore".[13][14] During a meeting in 2016, he declared that he wanted the party to split to "get rid of the Blairites".[8][15] In 2017, he said some disloyal Labour MPs "deserve to be attacked".[16][17][18] Willsman attended a "Clause V Meeting" in 2017 to approve the party's manifesto for the 2017 general election. At this meeting, he unsuccessfully proposed a policy of getting homeless people to work on farms in exchange for accommodation.[19]

Having failed to win a seat in the 2014 NEC election, Willsman came in sixth place in the 2016 election, and was therefore one of six candidates, all backed by pro-Corbyn activist group Momentum elected to represent party members on the body.[8][20][21] For the 2018 elections to the NEC, Willsman was initially included on Momentum's slate of promoted candidates due to role as chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.[13]

Antisemitism

In July 2018, Willsman was recorded during a meeting of Labour's NEC claiming that allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party were made up by "Jewish Trump fanatics", and claiming that he'd never seen antisemitism in the party.[22] He was criticised by The Guardian as well as Labour politicians including Tom Watson, Shami Chakrabarti, Luciana Berger and a former Corbyn spokesperson.[22][23][24][25] Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called for Willsman to be expelled from the party.[22] Momentum withdrew its support for him, describing his words as "deeply insensitive and inappropriate".[26][27] He retained the support of Member of Parliament Chris Williamson and Jewish Voice for Labour.[28][29][30]

Labour's affiliated Jewish Labour Movement wrote to party chair Jennie Formby requesting an investigation.[29][31] After Willsman wrote a formal apology to Formby, she warned him that if he behaved similarly again he would face disciplinary action.[32] Despite the publication of Willsman's remarks during voting for NEC representatives, he came in ninth place and was re-elected to the body to represent party members.[33] Whilst other members of his slate asked him to resign after his re-election, Willsman remained.[34]

References

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