Kate Green

Kate Green  "https:/jp/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Green" has been identified to contain an invalid "/jp/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Green" authority or path component.

Katherine Anne Green (born 2 May 1960) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston constituency since the UK/2010 General Election, and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Education since 2020. Kate Green was Shadow Minister of State for Disabled People under Ed Miliband from 2013 to 2015. After Jeremy Corbyn became Leader of the Opposition in 2015, she was appointed to the sShadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. She served in this position until she resigned in June 2016 to lead Owen Smith’s unsuccessful challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party. She later chaired the Committee of Privileges and the Committee on Standards from 2018 to 2020.

Kate Green returned to the Shadow Cabinet under Sir Keir Starmer as Shadow Education Secretary in June 2020, replacing Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Plot to oust Corbyn

In 2016 Kate Green played a part in an unsuccessful plot hatched by Tony Blair’s former special adviser John McTernan to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. McTernan had set out how Corbyn could be toppled simply by following the rule book, which states:

"When the Parliamentary Labour Party is in opposition in the House of Commons, the election of the Leader and the Deputy Leader shall take place at each annual session of Party conference."

Preceded by the National Women's Conference on Saturday 24 September, the 2016 Party conference was to take place in Liverpool from Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 September 2016.

Advance the Special Conference

On 7 August 2016, Jeremy Corbyn wrote to Iain McNicol requesting that the Special Conference when the leadership ballot result was to be announced should be held one day early – on 23 September 2016 – to prevent a “regrettable clash” with the Labour women’s conference.

Postpone the Special Conference

But on 10 August 2016, Kate Green (chair of Owen Smith’s leadership campaign) wrote to McNicol “formally” requesting a 2-week delay in holding the Special Conference to Saturday 8 October 2016, so that “our new Leader will be able to have a united team in place ready to fight the Tories before Parliament returns.”

Such a delay would have allowed the embattled Deputy Leader Tom Watson to save his job, and at the same time to hijack the Labour Party conference with accusations of Trotskyist infiltration like that of Militant Tendency in the 1980s. Watson’s ultimate aim was to have the whole leadership election annulled and ensure the Party conference followed the rule book by electing someone as Leader who was not Jeremy Corbyn.

Kate Green's letter to McNicol

This is the full text of the letter sent on 10 August 2016 by Kate Green, chair of Owen Smith’s leadership campaign, to Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol:

Dear Iain

I’m writing following Monday’s court judgement which extends the franchise to those members who joined the party after 12 January 2016 in the forthcoming leadership election. You will be aware that earlier this week Owen called publicly for an extension to the timescale for the membership ballot. I am writing to formally request the Procedures Committee consider this request.

Over 100,000 additional party members will now have a vote in the Leadership Election, something Owen has warmly welcomed. However, this poses a challenge in terms of the verification process and checking their records against the Affiliated Supporter and Registered Supporters lists, before their details can be passed to the campaign teams.

I am aware that the party is appealing against Monday’s High Court decision. The challenge to the High Court ruling creates further delay and uncertainty, however, with the possibility of a further appeal to the Supreme Court by the losing side. It is a distinct possibility that ballot papers will be issued on 22 August just days after the right to vote is confirmed to a large element of the membership.

Calls we have received to our campaign office, and anecdotal information from our staff, suggests that the newly enfranchised members are eager to engage in the leadership election process. The hustings debates are demonstrating the importance of members hearing from both candidates about their vision to fight the Tories, to unite the party, and to set out a policy programme that will take the Labour Party back into Government. We fear that giving some members as little as a week between confirming their vote and ballot papers landing is not sufficient time for them to gather the information they will wish to have about the candidates before they cast their vote.

Given the uncertainty, our request is that the leadership contest be delayed by two weeks. By issuing ballot papers on Monday 5 September 2016, the Procedures Committee will enable members to have longer to engage with the candidates. By extending the hustings period to Friday 30 September, both candidates can continue to debate their vision for uniting the party, and party conference offers an excellent forum to enable hustings events to reach the maximum membership. Finally, by delaying the Special Conference to Saturday 8 October 2016, our new Leader will be able to have a united team in place ready to fight the Tories before Parliament returns.

I look forward to hearing from you once the Procedures Committee have considered this request.

Regards

Kate Green MP, Chair of Owen Smith’s leadership campaign

 

Event Participated in

Event	Location(s)	Description
UK/Parliament/Voted YES to vaccine passports in 2021	UK/House of Commons	These members of the UK Parliament voted YES to the introduction of a "vaccine" passport in 2021

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.