Letter to Peter Watt, General Secretary of the Labour Party, 12 August 2007 (unanswered at 3 November 2007)
The Observer on 27 May carried a report that an individual named Anthony Bailey is to chair something called “Labour’s Faith Task Force” at its inaugural meeting in July. As a party member, I have been trying since then to find out more about this initiative and would be grateful if you could answer the following questions
1) is there indeed a Faith Task Force? Was the Observer story accurate? (I have read no denial from the party)
2) what are its terms of reference?
3) when was it announced?
4) How often is it to meet? What party resources have been allocated to it?
5) is Mr Bailey the Chairman? How was he appointed? What were his qualifications? Was the party aware that he is a patron of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Group? Were there other candidates?
6) who are the other members? What faiths do they represent? How was each faith invited to choose its representatives, especially those faiths which have no single structure of governance?
7) do the members include any humanists, atheists or other secularists? (Does the party accept that secularism is as deep a conviction as any religious faith? Indeed, many people of faith believe passionately in the separation of faith and state: “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render to God the things that are God’s”)
8) Does this task force have any kind of access to policy-making over and above that of ordinary party members or constituency parties? Has it met ministers?
9) what efforts are being made to remove any suspicion that party donors will be favoured in appointments to the Task Force? This is of course a live issue with other appointments. I wonder if you have considered reviving the party committee set up to scrutinize intended donations in the wake of the controversy over the Richard Desmond donation, or whether you have any other proposals to limit the political fall-out which some donations have created for our party? Indeed, I would be grateful to know what happened to that committee? Was it formally abolished or did it simply fall into disuse?
Richard Heller