Jennie Formby

Jennie Formby   (trade unionist, politician)
Born	Jennifer Louise Sandle April 1960
General Secretary of the Labour Party  In office 20 March 2018 - Present

Jennie Formby, formerly Unite the Union's South East Regional Secretary and vice Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, is General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Israel controversies

In 2015, Jennie Formby sparked controversy when she moved a motion at the end of an NEC meeting to bar G4S from providing security for the Labour party conference because of concerns over its operations in Israel. The motion was eventually overturned following objections from NEC members pointing out Labour policy was not to boycott firms operating in Israel.

In March 2016, Ms Formby spoke out days after the appointment of Baroness Jan Royall to lead an investigation into claims of anti-Jewish conduct by some in Oxford University Labour Club, saying that Lady Royall had once taken part in a Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) delegation in 2007. Fellow NEC member Shabana Mahmood swiftly interrupted to describe Ms Formby’s remarks as “highly inappropriate”, before the chair of the meeting moved on.

Labour General Secretary

On 27 February 2018, Jennie Formby announced that she is applying for the soon-to-be-vacant role of Labour Party General Secretary, replacing Iain McNicol:

"I have today decided to apply for the post of General Secretary of the Labour Party. Before setting out my reasons for doing so let me pay tribute to the work done by Iain McNicol in that role and to join every Party member in thanking him for his service and wishing him well for the future.

"Our Party is now united, as it has not been for years, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The General Secretary of the Party needs to be someone who can build on that unity to mobilise and organise the entire party and the wider labour movement behind a Labour victory at the next general election whenever this callous and crumbling government decides to call it. Labour’s strength rests on three pillars – the support of millions of voters, an individual membership far larger than that in any other British political party, and our link with our affiliated trade unions. I believe I am well-placed to help our party build on all three.

"My service as a party member for forty years, as a member of the National Executive Committee for the last seven, and as a senior official of my union in industrial, political and administrative posts has given me the breadth of experience to lead the whole party in meeting the challenges and seizing the opportunities ahead. I will work with all parts of the movement to ensure that the Party democracy review empowers the party membership, opens up policy-making, and ensures democratic best-practice throughout. I will ensure our exciting new community organising initiative is developed to help entrench Labour in the communities we serve and win the seats we need at the next general election.

"I stand for a tolerant and welcoming party, with no place for anti-Semitism, racism and misogyny or any form of abuse or intimidation; a party in which complaints are handled both fairly and speedily. I value the commitment and hard work of party staff and will ensure the whole party machine is working in support of our Leader and our policies, embracing the new campaigning tools and methods which we used to such effect in the 2017 election.

"I would be proud to be the first woman to serve as Labour Party General Secretary in a generation and only the second ever. I have fought for gender equality – often the hard way – throughout my lifetime in the labour movement. Labour has only one objective – to bring to Britain the socialist change it desperately needs. And it has only one means of delivering that – electoral victory at all levels, and above all in a General Election. As General Secretary, I will devote all my time and energy to ensuring that we grasp the historic opportunity before us."

Mother

Jennie Formby is the mother of Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey's child, born in 1991.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:EHRC avoids response to QC’s submission that Labour investigation breaches Equality Act	Article	3 August 2019		Jewish Voice for Labour's submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission points out that many of the worst aspects took place under the tenure of former general secretary Iain McNicol, while significant improvements have been made under his successor Jennie Formby.
Document:Labour & ‘anti-Semitism’: Real goal of establishment smear campaign is to deny socialists power	Article	23 April 2019	Ken Livingstone	After three years of screaming headlines, the truth about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is finally revealed: just 0.08 percent of Labour’s half-a-million members have said or tweeted something anti-Semitic
Document:Starmer’s Mortal Wound On The Soul Of The Labour Party	blog post	30 October 2020	Rachael Swindon	Starmer clearly believes he has now firmly established his own political identity and laid the foundations for the transformation of Labour’s electoral prospects – in the mould of Kinnock and Blair. It may be that he has simply destroyed his reputation for moral and intellectual integrity – and inflicted a mortal wound on the soul of his party.
Document:The shortcomings of the EHRC Report	Statement	6 November 2020	Jewish Voice for Labour	There are just 12 mentions of Jeremy Corbyn in the EHRC report, of which only two concern actions taken by him. It is reprehensible not to distinguish between actions taken by individuals supportive of Corbyn and those taken by people hostile to him – such an omission leads to the impression that all failings were Corbyn’s responsibility.
Document:We condemn the suspension of Jo Bird and the appointment of Lord Falconer	Article	4 March 2019		As Ken Loach said: “If it looks like a witch hunt and behaves like a witch hunt – it may well be just that. This is intolerable and must end now.”

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