It was founded by activists in 1973, with support from about ten Labour MPs, and its first President was Frank Allaun.

[1][2] A leading co-founder was Vladimir Derer, and his house in Golders Green became CLPD's headquarters for about twenty-five years.

[3][4] Amongst the changes desired were mandatory reselection of MPs, for the party leader to be elected on a franchise wider than MPs and for the party manifesto to be drafted by the National Executive Committee rather than the parliamentary leadership.

[6] In the 1980s, the CLPD became the first Labour organisation to call for more representation of women within the party, which eventually led to all-women shortlists to select candidates being adopted in the Labour Party.

[7] Corbyn did not advocate mandatory reselection for Labour MPs during his term as Labour leader – a demand that he, along with Tony Benn and other members of the CLPD, had made in the 1980s – but because of the Conservative government's constituency boundary redrawing, all MPs intending to stand again were due to face reselection by October 2018 anyway.