Ruled Out of Order: Why ‘Cash for Influence’ Still Matters

The Socialist Health Association’s proposed rule change on ‘Cash for Influence’ has been ruled out of order and will not be debated at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool next week.

We initially learned of the potential disappearance of our rule change second-hand through the left NEC CLP reps’ report on Labour Hub and elsewhere. We wrote repeatedly over the past almost two months to ask whether the rule change had definitely been ruled out as reported, on what grounds, and whether we could appeal or resubmit. None of those enquiries were answered until two days ago, when we were informed that the reason for the ruling was that the referencing was unclear.

Our submission clearly stated that the rule change referred to Chapter 5, Clause II, Sub-clause 3, Section A with the names of each section also given in full. We also explained precisely where the proposed text would be inserted and how the amended section would therefore read. We are therefore mystified by the grounds given for the ruling and have asked for further clarity, which has not been forthcoming.

We have been told that the decision is final with no possibility for appeal. Our sole communication on this has been from the Legal and Governance Unit, with the Conference Arrangements Committee declining to discuss this directly, despite having told the NEC that they would do so.

For a socialist society that has been affiliated to Labour for ninety-five years, this is not how the Party’s own democratic processes should work. At the very least, we are owed a written explanation and right to appeal as is custom and practice.

The substance of the rule change is simple. Labour MPs are expected to meet the highest standards of probity. Our proposal would keep the long-standing right of affiliates, such as trade unions and socialist societies – who represent the Labour Party membership and the wider labour movement – to support MPs with donations and resources. It would stop MPs accepting money, resources or loans from unaffiliated corporations, whose primary responsibility is to protect shareholder profits.

This matters most in health. Our NHS is increasingly shaped by outsourcing, private providers and corporate data contracts. Many Trusts’ annual budgets are crippled by historic PFI debt. When politicians who make decisions about health services also take funding from companies that profit from those policies, public trust is damaged, whatever the intentions of the people involved. Research shows that outsourcing of clinical care increases adverse patient outcomes, including preventable death. The poorest patients wait up to twice as long as the most affluent for treatment, vital NHS services are undermined, and private providers charge the NHS profit margins of up to 32%.

The public has a right to know that decisions about their health service are made on the basis of patient need, not donor interest. Clear rules protect MPs as well: they remove any suggestion that policy can be bought.

Ruling this proposal out of order will not make the problem go away. It only postpones a debate while staff and patients continue to suffer unnecessarily and the NHS haemorrhages money into private profits.

We will keep pressing for answers and campaigning on this issue. The principle is too important to be quietly set aside.

Read the September 2026 SHA Newsletter here.

Labour Party Conference SHA fringe meeting: “Restore Our NHS” Sunday September 27th 1-2PM.