On Saturday the 15th of November over a hundred Compass members, supporters and Local Group activists descended on Central London for our Annual General Meeting and a full-day conference, Charting Our Course. 

The day began with a welcome from Compass Director, Neal Lawson who set out our two-pronged strategy to beat Reform at the ballot box, but also tackle the causes of Reform. He first set out the need for a cross-party progressive alliance to win in 400 seats, not 40, through a politics that is popular, not populist. He also set out our ‘Popular Front’ project to build power in civil society through deep ideas work, with a focus on fair taxes, fair votes and a fair media. Neal mentioned that it was in the Foundry where the AGM was taking place that we had gathered the 60 organisations invited to make up the first meeting of the group.

This strategy is building towards the next General Election in 2029 and was outlined to members with the help of the image below, and formed the basis for discussions throughout the day.

Neal then welcomed Lena as the new Deputy Director, and Lena then spoke to where in our current work we’ve been expanding and systemising member engagement (Local Groups, publications, blogs, and organising on progressive alliances) thanking members for their contribution – and inviting more of it, and more ideas of ways members want to get involved in the year to come. She then paid tribute to Frances as the outgoing Deputy Director – to a big applause.

For our opening panel we were delighted to welcome Dawn Butler, MP for Brent East and Luke Tryl, Director of More in Common. Luke spoke about the unprecedented scale of the political fragmentation we’re seeing on both the left and right of the politics, and how likely and necessary electoral cooperation between progressives is. When asked by a Compass member about how long Keir Starmer could remain in power, Luke was honest in his answer and rebutted recent commentary that you couldn’t remove the Prime Minister because of the bond markets, saying it “embodies the politics of can’t” and that it was a dangerous precedent to set.

Dawn then spoke about her experience of being an MP in the first Labour government for 14 years, and how it didn’t feel like what she had been told a Labour government would feel like from people who had won for, and lived under the last one. In response to Luke’s points on cooperation between progressives, she agreed that we need to work together as “no one runs their personal best alone, we are in the fight of our lives and we must win”. Circling back to our strategy, she highlighted that to counter Reform, with their huge funding and divisive tactics, progressives needed to provide a hopeful vision for voters.

To reflect on the panel, members then broke out into discussion groups that were facilitated by Compass staff, members and board. The notes of these discussions are still being worked through, and thank you to all who participated.

After lunch where members had the chance to meet, peruse our publications and get their hands on Compass tote bags, before we were onto the second panel of the day with the Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation, Danny Sriskandarajah, and Communications Director at Progressive International and Momentum co-founder, James Schneider.

James discussed how the left has many good ideas, but lacks the power to implement them, and that any offer from a potential new government has to have de-rigging systems at its very heart. Linked to this, he responded to how the Labour government is struggling to materially change things as “the state has a sluice for corporate lobbying trash to flow through it”.

Danny spoke about the work they’re doing at NEF to change economic norms and thinking. After their research and interviews with those considered to be among the super rich, he talked about plans to curb extreme wealth. He said that “every society in the world has an extreme poverty line. Why couldn’t we have a line where we believe a household couldn’t hold more wealth?”. These ideas link back to our ‘Popular Front’ plan to push for fair taxes, which we know is popular amongst voters.

Attendees then went back into their discussion groups that were again facilitated by Compass staff, members and board.

 

Compass AGM 2025

The formal AGM was chaired by Compass Vice-Chair Baroness Ruth Lister and our Treasurer Mark Cooke. We opened with Mark’s report on our accounts for the year ending in 2025.

From here we took questions from members in the room and some that had been submitted in advance.

On meeting our target for reserves of over £100,ooo, one member raised the point that it was good practice for an organisation to have at least three months of running costs in reserve. Mark agreed and stated that this was why this target had been set.

Another member wanted to put in on record to thank outgoing Deputy Director Frances Foley for all her hard work in building a resilient, efficient and successful organisation. She will be missed!

There were questions about Compass’ recent work in the Labour Party through Mainstream, the link that has been made in the media between Mainstream and Andy Burnham, and the role they both have in the strategy outlined by Neal at the start of the day.

Neal responded that Andy’s politics of pluralism and cooperation aligned with Compass’, and that unlike the current government, Andy had been doing the thinking and putting ideas into practice that was required before trying to run the country. His support of PR, and other policies that we have been pushing for such as public ownership of utilities also marks him as one of many who could bring about a positive vision for the country.

After another question on Andy, the board and Neal stressed that covering our other work at the AGM was just as important.

Following a question submitted ahead of the event as to how we build a ‘Popular Front’, Neal detailed how we have reached this point through our previous work at the Foundry and mentioned some of the organisations who were involved. Neal also touched on the partnerships we’re building to with organisations like Hope Not Hate and others to deepen the alliances we need to challenge Reform.

Following a proxy voting push where over 100 people participated, as well as the dozens of people on Zoom and those in the room, the following resolutions were passed:

1. To receive the director’s report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025
2. To re-appoint Mark Cooke as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
3. To re-appoint Sarri Bater as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
4. To re-appoint Neal Lawson as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
5. To re-appoint Ruth Lister as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
6. To re-appoint Shuvo Loha as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
7. To re-appoint John Jackson as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
8. To re-appoint Jon Yeung as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028
9. To re-appoint Pablo John as a Director of the Company until the AGM in 2028