The English Labour Network – in partnership with Unison, GMB, Labour Coast and Country, Progress, Labour Future and the Labour Campaign for Devolution – would like to invite you to an virtual conference on Labour’s approach to English devolution.

Please join many of Labour’s leading voices on devolution from 9.45am on Saturday 27th February, including:

Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham, Rachel Reeves MP, Jamie Driscoll, Tracy Brabin, Liam Byrne MP, Sharon Taylor, Nick Forbes, Naushabah Khan and Lisa Johnson.

Sign up here for panels, keynote speeches, Q&As and workshops.

The UK government’s inept response to COVID-19 has shown once again that England is too centralised, but this is part of a debate that Labour has been having since the 1980s. A lack of clear policy or commitments about how power should be devolved meant that, outside London, England’s governance was largely left unchanged under New Labour.

In a recent speech, Keir Starmer set out his plan to bring "politics and power to be much closer to people" and stated that "unless we grasp the nettle and deliver real devolution of power and resources, we won’t be able to renew our United Kingdom for the 2020s and 2030s." Keir also committed to "a UK-wide constitutional commission to consider how power, wealth and opportunity can be devolved to the most local level... and it will start with listening to people in their local communities” adding that he will I “look at the conclusions without preconceptions.”

The English Labour Network welcomes Keir’s speech and believes that our conference will be a golden opportunity to shape the conversation.

We want this conference to bring the widest range of Labour opinion together to contribute a constructive discussion that can form the beginnings of a consensus across the party at every level. The English Labour Network is not putting forward any proposals of our own. We simply want to facilitate a platform for discussion.

Sign up to the conference today. All signups will receive a zoom link to participate.