There are a record number of candidates standing in this general election – showing the growing disenchantment with the establishment politicians and their parties.

In addition to the forty candidates standing on behalf of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) on July 4th – the full list of whom can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/TUSC-candidates-on-July-4.pdf – there is a range of other anti-war, anti-austerity independent and smaller party candidates appearing on the ballot paper. 

Local TUSC supporters, and the different organisations participating in our coalition, will want to campaign for many of these candidates, particularly in areas where there is no TUSC candidate standing nearby – while still promoting their own policies and organisations as they do so, and the TUSC central purpose of supporting alternative candidacies which will take forward the process of establishing a new mass vehicle for working class representation after July 4th. 

It is possible to do this.  But there are election rules that must be followed.  Both to avoid bringing the campaign of the candidate you are supporting into a breach of electoral law (potentially invalidating the result); and to avoid local TUSC supporters themselves risking prosecution.

The TUSC all-Britain steering committee has produced a guide, Campaigning For Other Anti-War and No-Cuts Candidates, available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Guidance-on-Third-Party-campaigning.pdf, that shows how this can be done. 

It includes a model letter to the alternative candidate that you wish to support – that can be adapted to the local situation – but which is the necessary first step before any leaflets can be produced or meetings organised.

Talk of ‘election law’ can “seem a bit daunting”, the guide concludes, “but it shouldn’t be”.  As it says, “the advantage of such arrangements is that organisations supportive but independent of a particular candidate can run their own campaign in an election period – which they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do – but then ‘strike together’ with the alternative candidate at the ballot box”.

“Local TUSC groups and participating organisations in our coalition should be confident to do so, seeking further advice if needs be from the TUSC National Agent”. ■