Mainstream

@mainstreamlabour

The home for Labour’s radical realists - united by values, driven by change. Join us to unlock the transformative potential of the Labour Party.

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Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 3h

Monica will bring values-driven leadership to Scottish Labour. We hope to see a real contest and debate about Scottish Labour's future.

Euan Stainbank, Labour MP for Falkirk and a member of the Mainstream PLP Group, said:
‘Monica is an excellent candidate, who will bring values-driven leadership to the Scottish Labour Party. I’m delighted, as a member of the Mainstream PLP Group, that she has been endorsed, as I believe she is the candidate who best represents the values of both Labour members and communities in Scotland.

‘It is imperative that those of us who have the distinct honour to serve in one of Scotland's two Parliaments make sure she is on the ballot.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 3h

Scottish members are clear that this leadership election must act as a circuit-breaker for Scottish Labour.

Kerry Postlewhite, Chair of Mainstream, said:
‘Scottish members of Mainstream are clear that this leadership election must act as a circuit-breaker for Scottish Labour. They see Monica Lennon as the candidate that can deliver a real reset and carry Scottish Labour to victory.

‘We hope that Scottish Labour MPs and MSPs will heed the voices of members and affiliates and allow a real debate about the future.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 3h

After consultation with our Scottish members, Mainstream is proud to endorse @monicalennon.bsky.social to be the next Leader of Scottish Labour. 🌹🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Mainstream backs Monica Lennon.

After consultation with our Scottish members, Mainstream is proud to endorse Monica Lennon for Leader of Scottish Labour.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 10h

Meet Elizabeth🌹 Council leader, DCN finance lead, and the candidate fighting for councillors to have a real voice in Labour. If you’re a Labour member in local government, vote Cllr Elizabeth Dennis for Local Gov rep.

A graphic showing Cllr Elizabeth Dennis with the text: 'NEC Candidate, Local Gov Section. This year, vote to reconnect Labour with its mainstream'.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 1d

Too many members still don't know how decisions get made, or who's accountable for them. Our candidates will push for transparency and accountability at the top of the party, and for local parties to have a real say over selections and policy. labourlist.org/2026/06/nec-... 🌹

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 2d

Mainstream candidates topped the CLP nominations list this year - 107 CLPs backed Cat, more than any other candidate standing. Jovan and Kerry weren't far behind. Our NEC, dominated by one tradition, needs a shake-up. Vote for one now.🌹

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 5d

Quick guide: the NEC ballot uses STV, so rank candidates in order of preference. Put @catarnold.bsky.social, @jowusunepaul.bsky.social and @kerrypo.bsky.social in your top preferences to make sure all three count. Voting preferences by region/nation below Voting closes noon, Thu 27 August. 🌹👇

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 7d

Meet @jowusunepaul.bsky.social 🌹 He stood in Clacton in 2024 - one of the toughest seats on the map - because he believes in a bolder, broader Labour, not a cautious one. That's the fresh thinking we need on the NEC. Vote Jovan in the CLP section.

"Vote: Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, L1232610." Photo of Jovan Owosu-Nepaul with short braided hair wearing a patterned jumper and a red rosette, outdoors in a coastal setting. Labelled "NEC Candidate | CLP section." Caption: "This year, vote to reconnect Labour with its mainstream."

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 8d

Meet Cat Arnold 🌹 Sitting NEC rep, vice-chair for women, and the candidate who topped CLP nominations this year. A Labour Party that draws on the wisdom, energy and talents of its whole movement needs people like her at the table. Vote Cat Arnold in the CLP section.

Campaign graphic: "Vote: Cat Arnold, L1452611." Photo of Cat Arnold smiling, with short blonde hair and glasses, wearing a red coat over a green top, outdoors near water. Labelled "NEC Candidate | CLP section." Caption: "This year, vote to reconnect Labour with its mainstream."

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 10d

Labour only secures transformative change when we draw upon our whole movement's energy, wisdom and talent. That's why @simonforstroud.bsky.social, Labour MP for Stroud, is backing the Mainstream NEC team. 🌹🩺 Thank you, Simon!

Labour only secures transformative change when we draw upon our whole movement’s energy, wisdom and talent.

That’s why the NEC needs reps who believe in pluralism, cooperation annd democracy, and it’s why I’m backing the Mainstream team: Cat Arnold, Kerry Postlewhite, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul and Cllr Elizabeth Dennis.

Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP for Stroud

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 11d

www.mainstreamlabour.org/2026-nec-and...

NEC Elections 2026:
Regional Ranking Recommendations
London, North West, Yorkshire & the Humber, International
1. Kerry Postlewhite
2. Jovan Owusu-Nepaul
3. Cat Arnold
West Midlands, South East, East, Scotland, Wales
1. Jovan Owusu-Nepaul
2. Kerry Postlewhite
3. Cat Arnold
East Midlands, South West, North East
1. Cat Arnold
2. Kerry Postlewhite
3. Jovan Owusu-Nepaul

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 11d

🗳️🌹🗳️🌹Huge thanks to our friends at the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform for recommending a vote for Cat Arnold, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul and Kerry Postlewhite - all members of LCER - in this year's elections to Labour's NEC! See our regional ranking recommendations below!

In this year's election, three candidates are members of LCER - Catherine Arnold serves on our Executive Committee, and Jovan Owusu-Nepaul and Kerry Postlewhite also belong to LCER.

Please consider ranking these as your top three choices (and if you're a member of Mainstream, it will make sense for you to place them in the recommended order for your region). All three are endorsed by Ann Black, longstanding member of LCER and of the NEC.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 14d

🌹In this year's NEC elections, vote to reconnect Labour with its mainstream. Find your email ballot under the subject line 'Your ballot – Labour Party elections'. Regional ranking recommendations below 👇

Your candidates for the NEC.
Elizabeth Dennis
L0145211
Local gov section
Cat Arnold
L1452611
CLP section
Kerry Postlewhite
L1212372
CLP section
Jovan Owusu-Nepaul
L1232610
CLP section
This year, vote to reconnect Labour with its mainstream.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 15d

For 25 years, @annblack.bsky.social has championed party members on Labour's NEC. We're thrilled that she's backing Cat Arnold, Kerry Postlewhite and Jovan Owusu-Nepaul this year. Support the Mainstream team to continue Ann's tireless commitment to transparency and democracy 👇

Cat Arnold was elected to the NEC in 2024 as part of a hastily assembled women’s mini-slate. She is committed to accountability, and since joining the NEC she asks all the questions which I asked when elected back in 2000. Given time she may even be able to track down some answers. She has just been elected as the joint NEC vice-chair for women, and her statement is here.

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul worked for the party’s equalities team, and stood as the Labour candidate in Clacton in 2024. Few people know more about campaigning against the Faragists, and after he visited Oxford I can recommend him highly as a speaker for party meetings. His statement is here.

Kerry Postlewhite was also a parliamentary candidate in 2024, and can empathise with the experiences of candidates and members in non-priority seats. She worked for the Socialist Group of MEPs, including Labour MEPs, for more than ten years. Her statement is here.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 15d

💥💥💥 Ballots are arriving today! 💥💥💥 Vote for the Mainstream team to build a new politics rooted in democracy, participation and radical ambition for the communities Labour exists to serve. www.mainstreamlabour.org/2026-nec-and...

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 16d

🗳️ Voting opens TOMORROW for Labour's NEC. We’re organising to elect a team of Mainstream candidates who will fight for the democratic and pluralist Labour Party that we need in order to bring a popular, principled and practical left politics to life. www.mainstreamlabour.org/2026-nec-and...

From tomorrow, ballots will land for Labour's NEC elections. Back the Mainstream team: Kerry, Jovan, Cat, Elizabeth.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 17d

Our Chair and NEC candidate, Kerry Postlewhite, is out with Mainstream members campaigning in the Greater Manchester Mayoral Election this weekend! Say hello, and remember to #VoteBevForUs

A photo of Kerry Postlewhite with three Mainstream members holding Bev Craig campaign boards.

A photo of Kerry Postlewhite with 4 Mainstream members on ‘Co-operative Street’.

A photo of Kerry Postlewhite in front of a yellow campaign bus decorated with ‘Vote Bev For Us’.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 20d

Mainstream's NPF candidates will strengthen the link between policymaking in our party and the movement that makes us strong 🤝🌹 Our candidate for the Northern region - Sean Laws - was proud to represent Mainstream at this year's Durham Miners' Gala. www.mainstreamlabour.org/2026-nec-and...

A photo of Sean Laws with two colleagues at the Durham Miners' Gala.

A photo of the balcony at the Durham Miners' Gala where a banner reading 'The past we inherit, the future we build' is displayed.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 25d

Mainstream’s Interim Council sends its congratulations to Andy Burnham on becoming Leader of the Labour Party and, from Monday, Prime Minister. We look forward to playing our part in making real change happen - with our eyes wide open to the scale of the fight ahead.

On Andy Burnham’s Announcement as Leader of the Labour Party:
Mainstream’s Interim Council sends its congratulations to Andy Burnham on becoming Leader of the Labour Party and, from Monday, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

We were proud to launch with his backing last year, and like the whole Labour movement, we are hopeful for this shared opportunity to write a transformative new chapter for the country. This is our final chance to defeat the forces of the authoritarian right, pull our party back from the brink and build a country that shifts power and wealth decisively back to the majority. To deliver on the promise of “change” we made in 2024, what comes next must be radically and meaningfully different. Business as usual must end.

We face a growing inequality and climate crisis, which is feeding spiralling living costs and a basic sense of scarcity, injustice and unfairness across the country. To tackle it, Labour must be prepared to invest in the bonds that hold communities together, pioneering a new political economy and rebuilding our broken democracy. In our recent paper, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism, we set out in detail how this new settlement can take shape.

Facing international instability, Labour must champion solidarity, human rights, and collective action. We must reject the extraction, exploitation and grotesque inequalities promoted by domestic and global economic systems.

To win support for a popular, principled, and practical left politics, Labour must also change within. We must unlock the wisdom, talents, and energy of all of our members and our wider movement to lead the change our country so urgently needs. Our new leadership must root out the factionalism and insularity of recent years, embracing democracy, pluralism and participation.

This should start with the full implementation of the recommendations of the Forde Report on Labour Party culture. It also demands that our new leader’s first Cabinet properly represents our party’s tradition as a broad church, not a boys’ club. We hope, in particular, to see the appointment of a progressive Chancellor with vision, values and a record of delivering structural change; someone who understands the threat that climate breakdown poses to people and planet and who has the courage to rebuild our state’s productive capacity.

May’s devastating election results showed that, in every nation and region of the UK, vast swathes of voters have lost faith in Labour. Party membership has sunk to a dangerous low, and much of our movement feels dejected and disempowered. The process to change the leadership did little to address this at the grassroots. Labour have been given a lifeline - but we are by no means out of the woods. Change at the top is necessary, but to make hope a reality, this next chapter for Labour and the country must follow a genuinely different path.

We look forward to playing our part in making real change happen - but we do so with our eyes wide open to the scale of the fight ahead.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· 29d

A comment from Mainstream's Interim Council on the second reading of the Immigration and Asylum Bill, taking place today👇

On the 2nd reading of the Immigration and Asylum Bill:

The public rightly expects an immigration and asylum system that is fair, controlled and compassionate. We welcome the Government's determination to restore confidence in a system that today works neither for local communities nor for people fleeing war and persecution.

As Parliament considers this Bill, we want to see reforms that address some of the system's biggest shortcomings, including faster, higher-quality asylum decisions, an end to the reliance on expensive and unsuitable accommodation (which would be easier if asylum seekers were allowed to take paid work after 6 months), and more effective and expansive safe and legal routes that help undermine the criminal gangs who profit from human misery.

Those are essential ingredients of an immigration and asylum system that works for everyone. Unfortunately, this Bill does not offer them. Instead it will weaken the rights of asylum seekers in a number of ways.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jul 9

💥💥💥 Huge news 💥💥💥 Mainstream leads the CLP nominations for the NEC elections! And all of our brilliant candidates for the NEC and NPF are officially on the ballot. Thank you to the CLPs and Labour Groups across the country supporting the Mainstream team.

A screenshot of a LabourList article that reads; Mainstream top CLP nominations for NEC elections. Daniel Green.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jul 8

❤️‍🩹 💊 Devolution is the best medicine for the NHS, argues @simonforstroud.bsky.social, member of the Mainstream PLP Network. Read: www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/he...

A screenshot of an article by Simon Opher MP: Devolution is the best medicine for the NHS. Manchesterism can deliver a place-based health service that reflects local requirements, while maintaining national standards.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jul 1

"The fire Blair warns of is real. But the answer to fire is not to retreat to the safety of the known - because the known is what is burning." Read @barrygardiner.bsky.social's response to Blair 👇 www.mainstreamlabour.org/blog/a-respo...

A Response to Blair: Inclusive Wealth, A Resilient Future, and the Politics of Place. Barry Gardiner MP.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 26

⁉️ 🧐 Is it time for rent controls? That's the question we'll be debating with speakers from @jrf-uk.bsky.social and @britishprogress.org at our next members' event at 6.00pm on Thursday 2nd July. Mainstream members can register for this event using the link sent via email.

A cream graphic with a picture of Labour members gathered around a table and the following text: Beyond the Renters' Rights Act: Is it Time for Rent Controls? 6.00pm Thurs 2nd July, Online.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 24

READ: www.mainstreamlabour.org/publications...

A graphic showing the cover of Mainstream’s new report, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism, and the following text: 'The Productive State:
A Framework for Manchesterism, By Mathew Lawrence and Alex Williams. The Productive State is the foundation for a different kind of economy - one organised around a principle that four decades of market primacy systematically suppressed: that the essentials of life should be provided for need rather than profit, and that economic security is the condition of genuine freedom rather than its enemy.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 24

🌹 ‘This excellent paper on the Productive State is an important contribution to the debate being had across the economic policy sphere right now’ @yuanfenyang.bsky.social on our new paper, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism 👇

A graphic with a quote from Yuan Yang, Labour MP for Earley and Woodley, and Member of the Executive Committee of the Tribune Group of MPs:
‘This excellent paper on the Productive State is an important contribution to the debate being had across the economic policy sphere right now. Its diagnosis of the problems of privatised utilities has direct relevance for the future of Thames Water, which has failed my constituents and many others.
‘Change requires a diagnosis and a solution that matches the scale of our challenges, and a broad consensus is emerging within the Labour Party on the need for bolder measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis at its root, reducing inflation and ensuring sustainable growth in the long run.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 24

🌹 ‘Every transformational political project needs an economic spine running through it, holding up its vision of the good society.’ @labourlewis.bsky.social on our new paper, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism 👇

A graphic with a quote from Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South and a leading member of the Mainstream PLP group:
‘Every transformational political project needs an economic spine running through it, holding up its vision of the good society.
‘The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism is precisely that, with ideas to spare. What it does is articulate a truth known instinctively for some time: that the foundations we all rely on - the buses, the homes, the clean water -
should be built for the public and owned in common, run by bodies that earn their keep, and answer to voters rather than shareholders.
‘It really is the tonic for a country told for 40 years that decline was the only realistic option.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 23

‘It is a valuable contribution to rethinking a social-democratic case for a more active state’ 🌹 @stewartwood.bsky.social on our new paper, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism 👇

A graphic with a quote from Lord Stewart Wood, Labour peer and former economic advisor to Ed Miliband:
‘Since the 2008 Crash, Labour has been unable to develop a sustainable political economy to replace the approach developed in the New Labour years under Blair and Brown. Mat Lawrence and Alex Williams’ excellent essay makes an important contribution in trying to respond to this challenge.
‘They set out the rationale for a role for the state in supporting the long-term productivity of public services, helping to build new infrastructure and helping to produce public goods that are vital to thriving communities. It is a valuable contribution to rethinking a social-democratic case for a more active state that helps to generate wealth and improve lives across the country.’

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 22

The Labour Party now has a chance to turn a corner. But we must be clear: this is our final chance. Mainstream's Interim Council on this morning's announcement 👇

A graphic that reads: On Keir Starmer’s Resignation as Leader of the Labour Party. A Statement from Mainstream’s Interim Council. The Labour Party now has a chance to turn a corner and make good on our 2024 promise of ‘change’.

But we must be clear: this is our final chance. What comes next must be a genuinely transformative political project. It must be bold in its offer to the country, and resolutely opposed to the internal culture of insularity and factionalism that has taken Labour to this point.

We will be consulting our members about what they would like to see happen next.

Mainstream@mainstreamlabour· Jun 19

Andy Burnham's victory in Makerfield is a victory for mainstream Labour values. The people of Makerfield chose hope, unity and a radical change of direction. Labour must hear and heed the lessons of this by-election to defeat Reform and transform the country.