The latest meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee, held on December 10th, welcomed the successful launch of Your Party at its Liverpool conference at the end of November.

There were different views expressed, inevitably, between the different components of the TUSC coalition on various aspects of the conference, and the foundation process of Your Party more generally.

But, once again, the steering committee was united in pledging to help in any way it can to take forward the fight for a new, mass party of the working class – and, in particular, to discuss with the Your Party interim leadership agreed at the conference how best to maximise the opportunities provided by the elections in May next year to build a working class, socialist anti-austerity alternative to the establishment parties.

People’s Budgets as a basis for election campaigns

One highlight of the conference, the steering committee agreed, was the overwhelming support given (a 90% yes) to an amendment sponsored by TUSC supporters under the heading, ‘Prepare for the May elections with a bold anti-austerity stand’.

Recognising that “the 2026 local elections are a huge opportunity to stand Your Party candidates that can expose and cut across all the pro-austerity parties, not least Reform UK”, the amendment went on to urge branches and Your Party proto-branch supporters groups to “organise open public conferences, including representatives of trade unions, community organisations, socialist parties and others, to discuss their local community’s needs and draw up a no-cuts ‘Peoples Budget’ based on those needs, not Starmer’s continued austerity”.

By Your Party candidates pledging “to take these issues and more into the council chambers”, the amendment concluded – fighting “for a no-cuts budget that meets the needs of our communities and demanding the money to pay for it from central government” in summary – the best possible election campaign could be prepared in those council areas going to the polls in May (see the TUSC directory of where there will be elections in 2026 at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Provisional-2026-elections-directory.pdf).

But that positive plan for Your Party and TUSC supporters to act on still leaves questions about how best to maximise the impact of a 2026 election challenge given the practicalities of establishing Your Party’s structures after the Liverpool conference – and some of the other decisions that were agreed upon there.

Practical questions for next May

The TUSC steering committee had discussed some of these issues at its previous meeting, assessing how the Your Party founding documents, specifically the constitution and the first year organisational strategy paper, related to the 2026 elections (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Your-Party-the-2026-elections.pdf). And the conference has brought, if not a definitive picture, at least some more clarity.

It was agreed, for example, that, because of the unlikelihood of official Your Party structures being in place in time, “for the unique case of the 2026 Local Government elections in England, Your Party will seek to support all independent socialist candidates of good standing where there is evidence of candidates being engaged in progressive community campaigning and having the support of their local communities or trades unions branches”.

This, TUSC believes, should be a green light for every community organiser, social movement activist, trade unionist, and socialist campaigner to be prepared to stand next May. Apart from anything else, if one-sixth of the council seats up for election are contested the broadcasting authorities will be obliged to give ‘fair media coverage’ to a socialist, anti-austerity challenge, headed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

On the other hand, the ballot conducted during the Liverpool conference also agreed an amendment – by 5,787 online votes to 4,373 – that “the Party’s strategic priority in the English local elections will be to target support for endorsed candidates” to those “in a position to meaningfully contest for their seat”. Actually, that doesn’t preclude a wide spread of candidates standing to ensure that the pro-austerity establishment parties don’t have a free run; while national party support – financial resources, media focus, co-ordinated telephone canvassing, MPs visits etc – is concentrated on ‘target candidates’. But it is not clear – and time is pressing.

Co-ordinating efforts

At this point in the year, at its December meeting, the TUSC steering committee would usually be setting out a timetable for candidate selection for next year’s elections, agreeing the questions to be asked in the candidate application form and so on. The last time this particular four-yearly cycle of elections took place for example, in 2022 under Boris Johnson’s Tory government, TUSC organised 227 candidates to stand – which, if repeated, would be a significant contribution to the ‘fair media coverage’ one-sixth of seats target. But a co-ordination of efforts is urgently needed.

So the steering committee agreed to defer making any plans until our January meeting – in order to seek more clarity from the Your Party interim leadership on what their intentions are for the local elections and how we can achieve the maximum possible impact next May. ■