Contemporary Motions for Labour Party Conference

Momentum is supporting a number of contemporary motions for Labour Conference this year. Some motions have also been supported by other campaign groups, as detailed under each one.

The Government must act on Israel’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians

● On 9 August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the US-backed 15-point plan for Gaza.

● On 10 August, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that Israeli military operations continue across Gaza, resulting in Palestinian civilian casualties.

● On 16 August, an Israeli minister called for routine daily killing of dozens of Palestinians in Gaza.

● The NPF Annual Report 2026 does not reference any atrocities committed in Gaza by the Israeli state, but Israel has violated the October 2025 Gaza ‘ceasefire’ thousands of times, with more than 1,250 Palestinians killed in that time, and in June 2026 the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry report confirmed that Israel’s genocide in Gaza is ongoing.

● Israel is on trial for genocide at the ICJ and in 2024 the ICJ judged that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be unlawful and ruled that Israel was in violation of the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.

Conference welcomes Andy Burnham’s apology for Labour’s stance on Palestine and acknowledges Ed Miliband’s statement on 11 August, but believes decisive action is needed against Israel’s genocide.

Accordingly, Conference calls on the government to:

● Accept the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry that Israel has committed genocide.

● Impose comprehensive sanctions on Israel, including a full arms embargo.

● Ban all trade that aids or assists Israel’s military actions in Gaza or its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including all trade with Israel’s illegal settlements.

Supported by Momentum and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Conference calls on our Labour Government to:

Supported by Momentum and Labour for Trans Rights.

Conference celebrates 78 years of Labour’s National Health Service.

Conference notes with concern NHS England’s 13 August 2026 press release, showing the waiting list rising back to 7.3 million, barely 4% below July 2024’s 7.6 million. Moreover, 90,000–100,000 of the 110,000 March 2026 waiting-list drop were financially incentivised administrative “Unvalidated Removals”, not patients treated.

● The Royal College of Emergency Medicine associates prolonged A&E waits with over 300 deaths weekly.

● Maternal mortality at its highest for almost two decades, disproportionately harming Black, Asian and poor communities.

● Research showing outsourcing causes excess preventable mortality, widens inequality, undermines NHS services and costs more than inhouse provision.

● Trusts crippled by PFI debt, while £16 billion of needed repairs endanger staff and patients.

Conference believes marketised health and care services fail our Prime Minister’s Makerfield test. Market-driven policies leave communities like Makerfield with the greatest health needs and on the wrong side of widening inequalities.

● Reinstate the NHS as a fully publicly owned, publicly provided, fully funded, fully resourced and free service, delivered on need — restoring the Secretary of State’s duty to provide, ending the purchaser– provider split and removing market mechanisms.

● End outsourcing, suspend A&E and maternity closures pending equality impact assessments, restore workers’ pay against inflation and update Agenda for Change.

● Reject PFI-style funding, prepare to exercise the Palantir break clause and terminate or renegotiate the US-UK pharmaceutical deal.

Supported by Momentum and the Socialist Health Association.

Labour’s historic championing of council housing remains crucial today in tackling the nation’s escalating housing crisis.

John Wheatley, Labour’s 1924 housing minister, initiated funding for the “homes fit for heroes” that Lloyd George failed to deliver. Wheatley empowered councils to build large numbers of council homes.

Following Labour’s 1945 landslide, Nye Bevan, Minister of Health, launched a massive council house building programme. Labour and Conservatives subsequently competed to build the most homes. Up to 1980, 4.4 million council homes were built. Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy sharply reduced the public role in housing. Today, private and “affordable” rents are unaffordable for many and homeownership is a distant dream. People in desperate housing need wait years for a council property.

To restore hope and meet the aspirations of millions seeking a safe and genuinely affordable home, the Labour Government must:

● Invest in a council house building/acquisitions programme of 100,000 social rent homes a year.

● Replace “affordable rent” with social rent.

● End above inflation rent increases for council and housing association tenants.

● Direct all Affordable Homes Grant to providing social rent properties.

● Promote council Direct Labour Organisations: in-sourcing a crucial service and providing well paid, unionised jobs and apprenticeships.

● End the Local Housing Allowance freeze and fully fund councils for temporary accommodation costs.

● Ensure homes meet high environmental standards.

These initiatives would address acute housing need, reduce housing related ill-health, boost growth, and reduce Housing Benefit and temporary accommodation costs.

Supported by Momentum and the Labour Campaign for Council Housing.