Selection under Blair: The Fall and Rise of One Member One Vote

Abstract

The adoption of OMOV at the 1993 conference marked the end of a long period of conflict within the party about selection mechanisms. The decisive shift between an old and a new style of party democracy with respect to candidate selection had now been taken. Or at least so it seemed. Certainly no such tense decision has been taken by the party conference, on any issue, since. However, subsequent years showed that controversy over internal selections in the party was far from over. During the next decade debates about systems for choosing Labour candidates for elected office continued, and at times returned to the national headlines. On occasion this was because of moves to further modernise the process. But at other times it resulted from attempts by the party leadership to retreat away from OMOV to more traditional methods when there were difficult decisions to be made