Labour AM accuses party’s executive council of ‘criminal incompetence’

A Labour Assembly Member has accused the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) – which includes a fellow AM – of “criminal incompetence”.

Earlier this week the NEC decided not to hand Welsh Labour the power to reselect MPs, prompting First Minister Mark Drakeford to express his “deep disappointment”.

Yesterday a proposal to abolish Tom Watson’s Deputy Leader role had been due to be put to a vote at a meeting of the NEC.

The party’s annual conference begins in Brighton today.

“I think it’s terrible,” Labour AM Alun Davies said. “The NEC has demonstrated criminal incompetence this week. They should be apologising to us all.”

He was responding to NEC member Mick Antoniw AM’s decision to ‘like’ a tweet from fellow NEC member John Lansman on Twitter.

Lansman had said: “I welcome & fully support Jeremy’s proposal to review Tom Watson’s position.

“We need to make sure the deputy leader role is properly accountable to the membership while also unifying the party at conference. In my view, this review is absolutely the best way of doing that.”

Jon Lansman, the founder of the pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum, tabled a last-minute motion at the NEC on Friday night calling for Watson’s job to be scrapped.

The chair of the NEC initially ruled Lansman’s motion out of order, but NEC members agreed to return to the issue today.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has now proposed reviewing the Deputy Leader role.