The Labour party’s National Executive Committee has backed Ed Miliband’s plans to change the party’s trade union links by 28 votes to two, which marks a resounding victory for the Labour leader. There was little doubt that the NEC would endorse the reforms, which will still take five years to be implemented, and in the end the two members who opposed the proposals (another member abstained) were vocal leftwing backbencher Dennis Skinner and Christine Shawcroft.
The next step is for the party to vote on the reforms at a special conference on 1 March. Miliband said this afternoon:
‘Some people will find change difficult to accept. Others are worried about the consequences. But at the PLP last night, the Shadow Cabinet this morning, and the NEC this afternoon, there was a strong consensus that change must come.
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