Chair of The Labour Party
The chair of the party is elected by the NEC from among its own members, and holds office for a calendar year, chairing both NEC meetings and national party conferences.
The name of this post has become confused since 2001 when Labour Party leader Tony Blair appointed Charles Clarke to the courtesy position of "Party Chair" without the NEC or the national conference authorising such a position. The office's name remains "chair of the party" in the Labour Party Constitution, but elsewhere the party presents the position as "Chair of the NEC". Prior to 2001 the position was called "Chair of the Labour Party", and before that "Chairman of the Labour Party".
Read more about this topic: National Executive Committee
Famous quotes containing the words labour party, chair, labour and/or party:
“I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine.”
—Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)
“My chair was nearest to the fire
In every company
That talked of love or politics,
Ere Time transfigured me.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.”
—Thomas Browne (1605–1682)
“In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a “dictator” substitutes himself for the central committee.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)