Sir, – Further to "Takeover of UK Labour Party in North far too easy" (Newton Emerson, Opinion & Analysis, August 18th), as far as one can tell, our membership surge has been largely, but not entirely, due to a Corbynite surge. However, our initial surge in members last year came from Andy Burnham supporters, because he was supporting our right to stand Labour Party candidates for election.
The Labour Party in Northern Ireland (LPNI) did not rebel to stand in the Stormont Assembly election. A small number of members, including some who had literally just joined the party, rebelled and stood at the last minute as the Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee (NILRC), a body no-one had heard of before the election. The LPNI Executive made it publicly clear that it was not endorsing any candidates in the Assembly election and gave the NILRC no support. Likewise the Labour Party National Executive Committee made it very clear the NILRC members were not official Labour Party candidates and threatened them with disciplinary action for being in breach of rule.
We do not know what an official Labour Party vote would be in Northern Ireland. It has never been tried. But Newton can do better than to tar the Labour Party NI with the NILRC vote, given that the official party, both locally and nationally, was strongly opposed to the NILRC initiative. – Yours, etc,
BOYD BLACK,
Secretary,
Labour Party
in Northern Ireland, Belfast.