Labour Conference: Canny campaign gains dissenters four seats on NEC

Liz Davies

SEEN BY Millbank as an Identikit left-wing troublemaker, Davies, 34, is one Islington barrister unlikely to be invited round to No 10 for a cosy chat.

Was Islington councillor who achieved notoriety when the NEC itself refused to endorse her candidacy for the general election in Leeds North East.

Former member of board of Labour Left Briefing magazine, which once described Tony Blair as "Class traitor of the month". Backs progressive taxation to shift resources from the rich to the poor and firmly against dismantling the welfare state. Says "Labour has nothing to fear from dissent."

Cathy Jamieson

DESCRIBED AS the "last left-wing member" of the Scottish Labour Party executive, the 41-year-old delegate for Ayr is highly regarded as a professional operator even by her political enemies.

Allies point to the fact that she is on the list of candidates for the next year's elections to the Scottish Parliament as proof of the huge difference between the party north of the border and Millbank.

She is a leading children's campaigner in Scotland, organiser of the advocacy group Who Cares? Scotland, and also a senior panel member on inquiry into child abuse in Scottish children's homes.

Mark Seddon

EDITOR OF left-wing Tribune magazine, an affable yet shrewd strategist and a long-way from the stereotypical image of a far-left socialist. Masterminded the campaign by the Grassroots Alliance, widely acknowledged as better organised and staffed than the Members First campaign. Seen by many as the "acceptable face" of the Alliance, his reputation as a canny media manipulator was borne out by the high profile he achieved during the ballot. Upset party apparatchiks when he published photos of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson on the front of Tribune with the caption "Politics with a perpetual sneer - beware of the bogeys."

Pete Willsman

WIDELY RECOGNISED within party circles for his connection with the Bennite Campaign for Labour Party Democracy in the early 1980s, but a virtual unknown outside.

Trusted as a safe pair of hands for his detailed knowledge of party procedure and rules, the Unison research officer campaigned on a platform of supporting rank and file members right not to be sidelined by the leadership. An unashamed left-winger, committed to "socialist/co-operative principles", including "redistribution of wealth'' committed to gender, race and class issues." Said in his manifesto that he "won't speak to divisive media".