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Labour Party co-opts Langhammer to NEC

Date: 20 June 2005
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Press Statement

From: Northern Ireland Labour Forum

Labour Party co-opts Langhammer to National Executive Committee

"A major step to look creatively at evolving island wide governmental politics" says Langhammer

In a move which strongly indicates the Labour Party's openness to the evolution of new directions in Northern Ireland, Mark Langhammer (Chair of the Labour Forum, the party's Branch in Northern Ireland) has been selected to join the Labour governing body, the National Executive Committee.

Langhammer was prominent in lobbying for the change to the Labour Party constitution to allow northern members to join in 2003, and became Chair of the northern branch - the Northern Ireland Labour Forum - set up in October 2004. Langhammer stood down, after many years as an "Independent Labour" councillor in Newtownabbey, to concentrate on organising the Labour Party across Northern Ireland. Though polling respectably in the election to the NEC at last month's Labour conference at Tralee, Langhammer was not elected. However, on the proposal of Kathleen Lynch TD, the newly elected NEC unanimously co-opted Langhammer onto the NEC for the two year term.

Mark Langhammer commented:
"This step sends a significant message - that the Labour Party is prepared to look, intelligently and creatively, at how serious, island wide, governmental politics can be developed - over time - within Northern Ireland. Intergovernmental co-operation, equality within Northern Ireland, a growing island wide North/South dynamic in political life and East/West collaboration will remain at the heart of Labour policy. Now, however, the door to real governmental politics is ajar. Labour people in Northern Ireland have only to join up, organise and push wide open the door towards normality in political life."

Ends

Biographical Notes for information

Mark Langhammer first stood as a "Labour Representation" candidate in the 1989 European elections.

Elected to Newtownabbey Borough Council as an independent Labour candidate since 1993, Langhammer topped the poll in 1997, and being elected on the 1st count on all other occasions.

In 1996 Langhammer led the Labour Coalition to election to the NI Forum and Talks, although - opposing the set-up of a Stormont Assembly as "institutionalised sectarianism" - he took no part in the Talks. Mark Langhammer has been Northern Ireland's most electorally successful Labour politician since the 1960's.

Cllr Langhammer had been a member of the Campaign for Labour Representation since the early 1980's. Having helped disband the CLR in an orderly fashion in 1993 on the grounds that the British political establishment (including British Labour Party) had no intention, at the highest level, of normalising Northern Ireland and ending its exclusion from mainstream UK politics, Cllr Langhammer led the attempts to secure membership and organisational rights within the Labour Party across Ireland. This campaign has been largely successful, with membership opened to Northern Ireland people in 2003, through a change in the Labour Party constitution. Pat Rabbitte TD, Leader of the Labour Party, launched its northern branch, the Labour Forum, in October 2004. Cllr Langhammer is Chair of the Labour Forum.

Achievements: Amongst Cllr Mark Langhammer's key political successes have been:

• Chairman of Newtownabbey's Economic Development Committee 1995-2001, leading the Borough through its first three Economic Development Plans.

• As Chair of the Rathcoole Regeneration Working Group, he has been responsible for overseeing the development of some £4m in environmental, recreational and leisure improvements, as well as lobbying for some £30m in housing improvements. Cllr Langhammer hosted the first ever visit to Rathcoole by a British Secretary of State, by Mo Mowlam in 1996. He was also responsible for the building of the Dunanney Centre, Rathcoole's Community Enterprise Centre, opened by Princess Anne in 1998

• Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux from 1994 to 1998.

• Chair of Playboard NI, Northern Ireland's lead body on childrens play, hosting a visit by Hillary Clinton in 1999.Responsible for the adoption of a Borough Play Policy, the first in Northern Ireland, heralding a widespread investment in play facilities across the Borough.

• Inaugural Chairperson of the Newtownabbey District Partnership (now Local Strategy Partnership) - set up to distribute European Peace & Reconciliation monies across the Borough.

• Cllr Langhammer is employed as Regional Director of a large UK e-Learning and educational charity. He is married, with two children, aged 13 and 12