About West Ham Labour party

Welcome to West Ham Labour party and our proud Labour history. We had the first Labour MP (Keir Hardie) and Council and we’re still Labour today. We’re also very active and sociable.

This website has been created with our members in mind, but the information here is available for anyone who is interested in us and what we do. Naturally, if reading this means you are inspired to join the Labour party, then we would be delighted to have you! We look forward to meeting you at an event or meeting soon but if you’d like to know more in the meantime please get in touch.

Your branch

The branches (based on the ward boundaries) are the building blocks of the party. Your branch meets locally each month, campaigns within the ward and selects and supports three Labour party members to become Councillors at the local elections. If you’ve recently joined your branch secretary will be in touch soon to welcome you and invite you to meetings. Or you can contact us on westhamlabour@gmail.com

You can check which ward you live in and who your branch secretary and councillors are here.
Many wards also keep in touch with members by facebook and twitter.

West Ham CLP

West Ham Constituency Labour Party (CLP) covers all of the area that Lyn Brown is the MP for and is made up of the 10 branches. We have a monthly meeting (called General Committee or GC) which we hope you will come to (check but usually 7.30pm, 4th Thurs of the month at St. Luke’s Community Centre,  E16 1HN (except Aug and Dec). We usually have these meetings open to all members with speakers followed by a lively Q&A and an update by Lyn Brown MP.

The CLP also selects and supports a candidate to run for MP. Lyn Brown MP was recently re-elected (June 2017) with 77% of the vote (picture above from the Count).

Labour in Newham

Newham is made up of West Ham and East Ham CLPs. The three Councillors that represent each ward are part of Newham’s 60 Councillors. We have a directly elected Labour Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, selected by Labour party members. And we have an organising committee which our CLP Chair and Secretary sit on.

The Borough Party is governed by the Newham Local Campaign Forum (LCF). It’s responsible for our campaigning strategy for council elections, selecting our council candidates and ensuring that our Labour Councillors (the Labour Group) are accountable to members.

London Labour Party

Members of West Ham CLP are also members of the London Labour Party the umbrella for all the CLPs in London. London Labour Party organises a range of campaigns, events and canvassing sessions. Members should receive emails and info from the London regional officer, Dan Simpson.

Members pick and support Labour’s candidate for London Mayor (Sadiq Khan) and Assembly Members (AM) of the Greater London Authority (GLA). Our AM (City and East) is Labour’s Unmesh Desai. Members also pick and support Labour’s candidates to run as the London’s MEPs – you can find out who ours are and more about their work here.

National Labour Party

The Labour Party is governed by the National Executive Party (NEC) which oversees the direction of the party and policy making. Members vote for the CLP representatives on the NEC. Members of the NEC are also part of the much larger National Policy Forum (NPF) which, as the name suggests, focuses on developing policy and our manifesto and brings together members from the Labour regions and affiliate organisations (more about them later).

The policies they agree are debated at Labour Party Conference. Each CLP can (and West Ham does) send a member to conference to represent them in debates and votes. We vote for our representative at our AGM. But every Labour member is warmly invited to Conference. It’s a great way to meet other members, hear our Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, speech first hand attend meetings and debates.