Lord Falconer: Labour's decision to axe student group 'legally invalid'

Former cabinet minister Lord Charlie Falconer has said the decision by Labour to axe its youth wing is legally invalid and breaks party rules as it emerged the group has been stripped of its voting rights at the party’s autumn conference.

The peer wrote to the party’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, to say the motion to shut it down passed on 17 September was based on false information and the group remains affiliated to the party.

Related: Labour votes to scrap student wing ahead of party conference

Labour Students, founded 40 years ago, was seen as a centrist group within the party, and has been effectively axed by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) over allegations that fees had not been paid. The Momentum chief, Jon Lansman, who brought the motion, said the group should be reformed.

Lord Falconer, a barrister who was secretary of state for constitutional affairs under Tony Blair, wrote in a letter seen by the Guardian: “That motion is invalid and of no effect because it is based explicitly on a series of false factual premises, and fails to pay any regard to the current rules of the Labour party. The legal position is Labour Students remain an affiliate and the motion has no effect.”

Labour Students representatives found out when they arrived at party conference in Brighton on Saturday that their delegates passes had been withdrawn, which means they can no longer take part in votes. As an affiliate of the party they were allocated two voting members per conference.

Chair of the group, Rania Ramli, said they were fighting the decision and would continue to hold their annual conference events including their disco – which is a major fixture on the conference calendar and will be attended by shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry.

Related: Labour student wing to fight party's decision to abolish organisation

Deputy leader Tom Watson is a former chair of Labour Students and the organisation has been praised by MPs in the past week for their significant campaigning presence during general elections.

Ramli told the Guardian: “We wrote to Jennie … explaining that the motion has no legal standing and that we therefore planned on continuing operating as the official affiliated student wing. We got no response … and haven’t received anything from the party telling us that Labour Students has been disaffiliated.

“We arrived at party conference to be told that our delegate passes have been revoked so we no longer have voting rights like all affiliated societies do. The motion has been acted upon with no response to the legal questions.”

Lord Falconer has been a vocal critic of the way the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has handled complaints of antisemitism. He had been due to lead an independent review into antisemitism in the party but stepped back when the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced it would carry out an investigation.

In his letter to Formby about Labour Students Falconer explained the group had their constitution signed off in 2015 by former general secretary Iain McNichol and checked again by Katy Clark who was carrying out a review into party democracy.

He wrote: “Therefore the claim that ‘Labour Students appears not to have submitted its political rules to the NEC’ is inaccurate.”

Falconer said that the claim in the motion that Labour Students had not paid its affiliation fee of £1.25 per member was “false” as the NEC had been sent a copy of the invoice and proof of payment made on 12 July.

He added: “Despite this, I understand there was no opportunity to debate the motion at the NEC meeting and it was passed without discussion.”

It is understood that up to half of all university Labour clubs, including those at the University of Bristol and Oxford University, disaffiliated from Labour Students this year in a major dispute over voting in its internal elections in May.

The implementation of a one-member, one-vote system agreed in 2016 has been fraught with difficulties, with accusations that it left many people unable to cast a vote. Some claim that, of a possible 30,000 student members of the Labour party, only 507 took part in the last election with allegations that it had been poorly run with a complex registration process.

Since the NEC ruled it should be disaffiliated from the party many university branches have welcomed the decision. Momentum has said reforming Labour Students is long overdue and a “victory for democracy”.

A Labour spokesperson said: “There are tens of thousands of students in the Labour party and their energy and campaigning enthusiasm is invaluable, and will be in the coming general election. Only 500 are members of Labour Students.

“We will be drawing up proposals for a reformed student organisation that fully represents them and complies with the rules.”

Labour said they received the letter from Lord Falconer and will reply in due course.