Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour’s security headache shows no sign of letting up

With just over a month to go until Labour party conference in Liverpool, the party ought to be turning its attention to setting the agenda for the year ahead. Instead, there are doubts over whether the event will even take place.

Earlier this month, a leaked memo to Guido revealed that the party was facing a conference crisis. Following a decision to boycott G4S after over 20 years working together, the party had approached five firms but only one – Showsec – was willing to provide security for the event. As Iain McNicol — the general secretary — pointed out, this was an unsatisfactory option as the Liverpool-based firm do not have a unionised work force and, as a result, are in a row with the GMB union.

Three weeks on and things have taken a turn for the worse.

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