Miliband’s party reforms are meant to democratise the Labour Party and end the culture of back-room deals and stitch ups. Ed wants to ‘let people back into politics’, so it’s amused Guido no end that not everyone in the party is very happy at how preparations for this weekend’s Special Conference are going. Accusations are flying around that the leadership is trying to rig the rubber stamping of the new voting and affiliation rules for the party and the unions. The conference will have delegates from all over the country, representing constituency parties – so far so good – normally these would be ordinary local committee members of Constituency Labour Party branches.

This time around, in a highly unusual move, Guido understands that a significant number of these ‘constituency reps’ are in fact the local MP. Labour Press have had all day but are yet to give an exact figure. While perhaps not being against the rules, this goes very strongly against the spirit of them – which is to make sure grass-roots get a say in any party reforms. As one source said today “Ed thinks they’ve got away with it and that no-one’ll notice.”

That new politics in action, once again!