Welsh and Scottish Labour branches to have no say on future manifesto.

Rank and file MPs would be shut out of the “Clause V” meeting that agrees on a manifesto at each election, with representatives of the Scottish and Welsh Labour Parties set to be excluded too.

The meeting is named after Clause V of Labour’s constitution which sets out how the party agrees policies and draws up a manifesto ahead of each general election. The rules state that the Parliamentary Committee of the PLP, currently consisting of PLP Chair John Cryer and 17 departmental chairs drawn from the backbenches, must take part in the meeting. The current rules also require the leaders of Scottish and Welsh Labour, the NEC, the Shadow Cabinet, four chairs of the National Policy Forum and eight trade union representatives to be present.

Under those rules, Labour convened a group of 80 to agree the detail of the 2017 manifesto.

Now the party’s democracy review has proposed amendments to Labour’s constitution so that only the NEC, the Shadow Cabinet and trade union representatives are present at Clause V meetings.

The change has so far gone unnoticed, but MPs are likely to react furiously to the prospect of being forced to stand for election on a manifesto they have not been consulted on.

So no representatives (unless they are in the Shadow cabinet)   will pit the  the case for the devolved powers specifically from a Welsh or Scottish  view point.

OK you could argue that it is a UK ManifestoSince England does not have its own parliament, but  the introduction of English votes for English laws (EVEL)  means that it will mean that the manifesto  will largely be Anglo-Centric with little  to say on the devolution settlement .

In some ways it will resemble any Post-Brexit  negotiations with Westminster representing England. With Wales, Scotland and (if it meets) the Northern Ireland Assembly.being represented by the leaders there,

For Northern Ireland indeed, with the DUP pulling the strings of the Tory cabinet, it highly possible the their leader Arlene Foster may have more say in the Conservative UK Manifesto than Welsh and Scottish Labour leaders have in theirs.

It is some what indicative  pf Jeremy Corbyn  and those around them that they seem to have  no concept of Devolution  and see everything from a Westminster eye. 

What we don't need is a Labour UK General Election Manifesto which tells us that they intend to change  laws that are currently devolved, but we do need to know what Labour especially in a Post-Brexit UK what they propose (such as handing back powers taken in the "grab" back.

We are likely to see the most Left Wing Labour Manifesto since 1945 owever it may also be the most Unionist as well.