Day one - our view

We came into conference with rumours of expulsions the night before. They were confirmed to be true. We then saw a leading independent councillor, James Giles, was stopped from entering. Perhaps because he chaired Zarah’s fringe last night.

But neither of these appalling parts of conference were even the most blatant aspects of today’s stitch up.

We had over 800 amendments submitted by members across the country – in hours and hours of conference floor, only one was heard. And it was a relatively uncontentious amendment to stop MPs having second jobs.

It really isn’t good enough that core discussions over the structures of this part have not been debated at all.

The amendment portal seems to have been all for show. Hours and hours of activist’s time thrown down the drain by the leadership.

A huge disappointment for the DemBloc members who organised so well ahead of this conference to get an elected general secretary motion heard. 1,181 people backed our motion. They were silenced today.

The positives

We had some amazing speeches throughout the day. The stand out speech was from a young member, Jannah, who spoke in favour of our party being a mass party that builds across the movement.

We also saw a brilliant speech from Andy Walker, one of our co-founders, who spoke on the same debate.

Throughout the day we saw the popular anger of members opposed to the witch hunt. Opposed to the sectarianism. Opposed to the stitch ups.

The leadership cannot silence democracy forever.