Labour Party Conference

The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when the House of Commons is in recess, after each year's second Liberal Democrat Conference and before the Conservative Party Conference. The Labour Party Conference opens on a Sunday and finishes the following Wednesday, with an address by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party; the Leader's address is usually on the Tuesday. In contrast to the Liberal Democrat Conference, where every party member attending its Conference, either in-person or online, has the right to vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system, or the Conservative Party Conference, which does not hold votes on party policy, at the Labour Party Conference, 50% of votes are allocated to affiliated organisations (such as trade unions), and the other 50% to Constituency Labour Parties, but all voting in both categories is restricted to nominated representatives (known as delegates). Conference decisions are not binding on the party leadership, even if carried unanimously.

Delegates to the conference are elected by Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs), affiliated trade unions and socialist societies. Currently, affiliated trade unions hold 50% of the votes at the conference, down from 80% in the era before Tony Blair. Some 40% of the votes^{[clarification needed]} are wielded by the three largest trade unions (Unite, GMB, Unison).^{[citation needed]}

Resolutions for debate are put forward by CLPs and unions before the conference begins. Each CLP, Trade Union and Socialist Society may make one submission to Annual Conference, either a constitutional amendment (rule change) or a motion.

CLPs, Trade Unions and Socialist Societies may submit emergency motions for consideration for debate by the Conference Arrangements Committee on urgent matters that have arisen since the deadline for motions.

The National Executive Committee leads the conference (although the details of the conference, including what is debated, are managed by the Conference Arrangements Committee) and if it does not agree with a resolution, the committee may put pressure on the backers to withdraw or remit it. Remittance means that the resolution's backers agree to "send back" the resolution to the National Executive so that it can consider the matter in more detail; this is viewed by some as a mere delaying tactic. The resolutions voted upon are normally composites, meaning that they have been compiled by combining several resolutions put forward by different bodies into a single wording agreed beforehand.^{[citation needed]}

Alongside the official business of Conference, there is an extensive fringe programme. The programme consists of a range of events including seminars, debates, workshops and receptions across the conference site and the host city. These events are run by different organisations with many differing themes and topics of discussion.

Aneurin Bevan made a speech disavowing unilateral nuclear disarmament, claiming that it would send the government "naked into the conference chamber".^{[citation needed]}

Nicolas Walter shouted "hypocrite" at Wilson in protest against support given by the government to US behaviour in the Vietnam War. Walter was bundled out of the venue, arrested, charged with "indecency in church" under the 1860 Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act because Wilson was speaking in a church, and imprisoned for two months.