Labour’s 40-year-old student wing has vowed to fight the party’s decision to wind the organisation down, amid speculation that a general election may be coming within weeks.
The chair of Labour Students wrote to the party’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, on Wednesday to say the decision taken by the national executive committee (NEC) has no justification and will be ignored.
Jon Lansman, the Momentum chair who sits on the NEC and is an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, was behind the move. He claims the group needs reforming and had not paid its affiliation fees. However, critics suggested the move is a cynical attempt to shut down a “moderate” wing of the party.
In Wednesday’s letter, seen by the Guardian, the group’s chair, Rania Ramli, wrote: “We have sought legal advice and been informed that there is therefore no justification for any changes in the status of Labour Students as a result of [the] outcome.
“We will continue to operate as the legitimately affiliated student wing of the Labour party.”
Labour Students said it will still host about 800 young members at its annual student disco at the party conference in Brighton, which gets under way on Saturday.
MP Jess Phillips described the group as the “workhorses” of the 2017 snap election, but others claim the organisation’s reform is long overdue over issues of democracy and transparency.
One disaffected university club president lambasted the group for “knee-capping” the ambition of young members.
Ramli said the organisation had paid its affiliation fees in July this year. Its constitution was signed off by the previous general secretary in 2015 and a copy given to Katy Clark, who led Labour’s review of internal democracy.
Ramli contacted Formby before the lengthy meeting of the NEC on 16 September to say the motion put forward by Lansman contained inaccuracies.
In her letter sent on Wednesday, she wrote: “This was not presented to the NEC and members were denied any opportunity to debate or raise concerns regarding the legitimacy and accuracy of the claims being made. No changes or amendments were made in light of damning contradictory evidence.”
NEC members voted five to 12 to pass Lansman’s motion, which asks Formby to devise a new organisation that would comply with the party’s rulebook.
Joel Jordan, current president of the Southampton Labour Society, wrote for the blog LabourList that the group’s leading figures had made a career by “climbing the ladder that is Labour Students” and it had been “knee-capping the hopes of Labour students”. He welcomed the move as a triumph for party democracy.
Several university Labour clubs, including at the University of Bristol and Oxford University, disaffiliated earlier this year from Labour Students in a bitter row over members not being able to vote in its elections in May.
The implementation of a one-member, one-vote system agreed in 2016 has been fraught with difficulties, with accusations it left many people unable to cast a vote.
Ramli said: “There were issues with it in terms of communication.”
A Momentum source said: “It’s a victory for democracy that the rotten borough of Labour Students is finally being reformed.
“There are 30,000 students in the Labour party and only 507 took part in their last election, causing many branches to disaffiliate.”
They said it was right for the group to be overhauled.
Former chairs of the group include the ex-Labour MPs Mike Gapes and Michael Dugher, deputy party leader Tom Watson and MPs Vicky Foxcroft and Ellie Reeves.
