The prospect of establishing a new political voice for the working class to challenge the continuity Tories of Keir Starmer’s New Labour party is now closer than ever!  On Thursday 3rd July the MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana announced her resignation from the Labour Party and her intention to work with Jeremy Corbyn to help found a new party.

Trade unionists will be critical in building a new party and shaping it to make it not just for, but of, the working class.  It is the unions, the already existing mass organisations of the working class, who possess the resources, mass membership, and social cohesion necessary to reach millions of people across all working-class communities and burst the Reform bubble.

After the elections in May this year, which saw gains everywhere for Reform, a number of senior trade unionists started a petition calling for the unions to take the lead in building a new working class party.  To this point the petition has been signed by 41 current and former members of trade union executive committees and over 1,600 trade unionists from all levels of our movement.

Now, after Jeremy and Zarah’s announcement, it is necessary to discuss the next steps to be fought for in every union, with a national Zoom meeting organised on Monday, 21st July, at 6:30pm to begin the job.

Get involved!  Sign the petition online at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty  And register at https://tinyurl.com/Register4TUnewpartymeeting to receive a link to the meeting.

A template to print out paper versions of the petition to use at meetings, demonstrations or for individual discussions with other trade unionists can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Petition-template-update.pdf ■

As the anniversary of the 2024 general election approaches, support is growing for the call made by trade unionists for steps to be taken now in the unions to establish a new political voice for working class people.

Various opinion polls are consistently showing Reform UK ahead of Labour.  One poll reported by Unite the Union suggests that only 5% of voters in Birmingham are actively considering voting Labour in next May’s local elections, for the biggest council in Europe.  Where will the other votes go?  The danger is that Nigel Farage could make significant gains, as happened in this year’s locals.  Time is not on our side.

A new all-Britain party capable of challenging all the Establishment parties on austerity and war is needed.  And only the unions have the resources, membership, and social cohesion to reach millions of people across all working-class communities.

The most recent prominent supporter of the petition calling for trade union action for a new party is Len McCluskey. The retired general secretary of Unite the Union signed at a meeting addressed by Jeremy Corbyn in Liverpool on June 14.  In total 37 current and former trade union national executive members are now backing the campaign – listed below – alongside over 1,300 who have supported it online and many more on paper.

The petition can be signed online at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty and the template to print out paper versions to use at meetings, demonstrations can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Petition-template.pdf.

National Zoom meeting

To follow-up the initial petition launch a national Zoom meeting has now been organised to discuss the campaign in more detail.

Different strategies will be needed for affiliated and non-affiliated unions: from challenging Labour funding and building new relationships with independent MPs such as Jeremy Corbyn (as the UCU conference has done), to organising conferences and forums within and across unions to work out the next steps.

At its June meeting, for example, Cardiff Trades Council unanimously voted to organise a conference in the autumn to address the crisis of political representation for the working class in Wales.  They are currently inviting all Welsh trades councils and trade union organisations to co-sponsor the event (the full motion is on the Cardiff TUC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cardifftradescouncil).

The Zoom meeting is on Monday 21st July, starting at 6-30pm.  Register at https://tinyurl.com/Register4TUnewpartymeeting to receive a link to the meeting.■

Although, typically, the details are obscure, the Starmer government has signalled that it will U-turn over some aspects of the withdrawal of winter fuel payments to pensioners it introduced last year. One down (sort of), but many more to go.

At the last meeting of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee we discussed a letter from Swansea Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC). They have been campaigning to get their local Labour MPs to publicly debate their position on the proposed cuts to disability and other welfare benefits. There is supposed to be a ‘public consultation’ on the plans, so why not tell the public what they think?

It was agreed to fully support their initiative and encourage similar campaigns elsewhere to also put Labour MPs on the spot before a parliamentary vote.

One way is to follow the Swansea model and try and get in-person public debates in as many areas as possible.

But there are many other ways for everyone to join in too.  From writing to your own MP (with an Inclusion London model letter available to use) to supporting the parliamentary motion submitted by the left-wing MP Richard Burgon calling for a wealth tax instead of devastating cuts to disability support.  Just follow the link to start – https://bit.ly/m/Stop-the-cuts

Starmer has been forced into one half U-turn – now let’s stop the disability benefit cuts. ■

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) all-Britain steering committee met after the May 1st elections and agreed a report on the results – which is now available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025-results-report.pdf.

The main theme of the steering committee discussion was how the profound alienation of working class voters from establishment politics that the results revealed – with Reform, at this stage, the chief beneficiary – required an urgent response from the trade union movement. 

But, it was emphasised, this cannot be the merely denunciatory approach adopted during the May elections of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak and other union leaders.  Acknowledging, as Paul Nowak did in an April 27th interview, that “of course there’s a lot of disillusionment with mainstream politics” but then only offering ‘advice’ to Sir Keir Starmer not to suffer “any sort of crisis of confidence with a 170-odd seat majority”, just plays into Nigel Farage’s hands.  What’s needed instead is an authoritative working class alternative at the ballot box. 

Trade union petition

To this end the steering committee agreed to back a new petition launched by 25 current and former trade union national executive members from eleven unions calling for steps to be taken now to establish a new political voice for working class people.

Under the heading, ‘Time for trade unions to take the lead in building a new working class party’, the petition text reads:

“The May 2025 election results show the need for a new party that the working class can trust”. 

“Stagnant wages, underfunded public services, the scandal of the housing crisis, Labour councils pursuing fire and rehire, cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, reductions in disability benefits, and continued government support for Israel’s murderous campaign in Gaza – and all under a Labour government.  Labour isn’t Labour anymore, and Reform UK is becoming a significant beneficiary of working people’s anger”. 

“We, the undersigned, believe it’s time for the trade union movement to seriously discuss founding a new anti-austerity, anti-war party.  Our movement will be weakened if workers see us as a voice for pro-austerity Labour.  We call for urgent discussions within our union and across unions to organise a conference to establish a political voice for working people”. 

“The Establishment has four parties – it’s time the working class had one of its own”.

The aim now is to build up the number of signatories of trade unionists from every level of our movement to add weight to the campaigns already under way in different unions for independent working class political action.  The petition can be signed online at https://www.change.org/TradeUnions-LaunchANewParty and the template to print out paper versions to use at meetings, demonstrations and so on is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Petition-template.pdf.

A Reform spokesperson responded to Paul Nowak’s attack by claiming that he was “lashing out” because “workers are ripping up their trade union membership to join Reform”.  That’s certainly an exaggeration for now.  But it is a warning of the dangers ahead if the unions are seen as apologists for the Labour government and its austerity II agenda.

It really is time for the trade unions to take the lead in building a new working class party. ■

‘The alienation from establishment politics just got deeper’, is the main theme of the draft report on the May elections from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), now available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025-results-report.pdf.

With the detailed results of the 155 anti-cuts, anti-austerity candidates that stood in the elections on May 1st – including the 105 candidates who used one of the TUSC-registered descriptions on the ballot paper – the report will be debated at the next meeting of the TUSC all-Britain Steering Committee taking place on Wednesday May 7th before a final version is published on the Candidates’ page. ■

The local elections on May 1st, covering almost one-third of voters in England, will be a no choice experience for those who make it to the polling station – except in the modest number of seats, just under ten percent of the council wards or divisions with elections, where at least there will be a choice of an anti-cuts, anti-war candidate available.

One hundred and three of these, contesting seats in 21 local authorities in England, are using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper, plus a candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster.  In addition there are at least 26 other candidates who are appearing on the ballot paper as independents or on behalf of a local community party, who are either former Labour Party members – or, sometimes, councillors – who are also standing in opposition to Keir Starmer’s austerity and war agenda.  And then there are a further 14 standing for other left-wing parties. 

If you really do think that it is time to vote for something different, and you are in one of the seats where there is a chance to do so, why not start on May 1st?

The final list of candidates using one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper on May 1st can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Candidates-final-update.pdf.  This is one fewer than in previously published notices due to the sad death of the TUSC candidate, Karen Seymour, in the Mansfield North division of Nottinghamshire County Council – a committed socialist who had consistently stood in district and county seats in the town since 2011.  The re-scheduled vote there will now be held in June.

The further record of other anti-cuts and anti-war May election candidates is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Left-Indy-candidates-on-May-1.pdf. 

With nominations closed for the local elections taking place on May 1st it is now officially confirmed that the sixth-biggest bloc of candidates – behind Labour, the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens – are those using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper.

The number of seats up for election in the 23 councils with scheduled contests this May is 1,641, with by-elections taking place in some other councils too.  In total there are 102 candidates who are using a TUSC-registered description in these contests – around six percent of the seats – plus a TUSC candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster.  The full list is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Candidates-final.pdf, with the council candidates presented in a regional breakdown.

Most of the candidates appear on the ballot paper with the description Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition next to their name but a number are using the new Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate descriptor, including two former Labour councillors in Doncaster.

Every candidate using a TUSC description is committed to stand up to the austerity establishment parties, including Reform, who have all shown themselves to be virtually indistinguishable when it comes to representing the interests of working class people.  The TUSC core policy platform for the May council elections – the minimum ‘six guarantees’ that candidates commit to – can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/21300/18-12-2024/our-six-guarantees-for-the-may-2025-local-elections/. 

The summary, however, is simple – every one of them will be a stop the new austerity candidate in the May 1st polls.

This is the highest number of trade unionist and socialist candidates that have stood in this four-year election cycle since TUSC’s formation (with elections previously in these seats in 2021, 2017 and 2013) – and the Starmer government is only nine months old.  The resistance is growing.  ■

There are other candidates who will be taking a similar stance on May 1st who, while not on this occasion appearing on the ballot paper with a TUSC description, will be supported by our coalition.  These include a number of candidates appearing on the ballot paper as ‘Independent’ – amongst the 550 or so independents standing this year – who could be properly described as anti-cuts and anti-war candidates.  We are currently collating information on these and will publish as comprehensive a list of alternative candidates as possible before polling day.

The campaign to offer a challenge to the austerity establishment parties in the elections taking place in Doncaster on May 1st has gathered momentum in the past week.

The acclaimed film-maker and playwright Ken Loach, producer of well-known films and documentaries such as Kes, Cathy Come Home, and I Daniel Blake – and many more dealing with social issues such as poverty, homelessness and workers’ rights – has sent a message of support to Tosh and Nikki McDonald who are standing as Independent Trade Union and Socialist candidates in the Town ward in the Doncaster city council elections.

Tosh is the former president of the train-drivers’ union ASLEF, and Nikki a former public sector trade union rep, and previously Labour councillors for the Town ward.

Ken Loach wrote: “Tosh and Nikki McDonald have long been committed to improving the daily lives of ordinary people.  They understand how to get things done, after great experience in political struggles and their work in their trade unions.  They stick to their principles, unlike Starmer’s Labour party, and they are the real opposition to the dangerous newcomers, led by Donald Trump’s ally Nigel Farage”.

“I am pleased to support Tosh and Nikki McDonald in the coming election – let’s ensure they win!’’

Tosh and Nikki say: “Both of us are former trade union representatives and have lived in Town ward since November 1999.  We have previous experience as councillors for this area, but we resigned from Labour in early 2021, as under Starmer it no longer represented working people so we finished our term as Independents until May 2021”.  

“Now we are back!  We are ready to give you, again, the full time help (being early retired) that you deserve.  As ‘Independent Trade Union and Socialist candidates’ we are fully free from Labour’s divisive local party politics and can concentrate fully on tackling the council issues that affect us all daily”.

“We stand for peace and love NOT war and hate”.

Mayoral challenge on

Tosh and Nikki are two of the eleven candidates standing for council seats using one of the TUSC-registered descriptions on the ballot paper in May, alongside Andy Hiles who is standing in the contest for the Doncaster city mayor taking place on the same day.

Andy says “I grew up supporting the 1984/85 miners’ strike, am a painter and decorator by trade, have worked in the building industry most of my adult life, and always been an active trade unionist representing members in the workplace”.

“I’m now a benefits advice buddy representing people at appeals and tribunals.  I’m standing for mayor to offer Doncaster people a working class and socialist alternative to the establishment parties and Reform”.  The challenge is on. ■

Andy’s insert in the election booklet that will be sent to every Doncaster voter for the mayoral contest can be read at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Doncaster-booklet-insert.pdf

And a public meeting with Andy Hiles, Tosh McDonald, and the former Labour MP Dave Nellist (1983-1992) – who only took a workers’ wage when he was in Westminster not the bloated MPs’ salary – has been organised for Tuesday 22 April, 7pm, at C-View Centre, Church View, DN1 1AF, to which everyone is welcome.

Anthony Wedlake, a Wrexham county borough councillor for Coedpoeth and formerly a Labour councillor, has announced his resignation from the party and will now instead sit as a councillor of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

Councillor Wedlake considers the cutting of disability benefits from the most vulnerable to fund a huge growth in spending on arms as a defining step of Labour moving away from a party for working class people with little to choose from the Tories.

He said: “The Labour Party under Keir Starmer’s leadership has been moving further and further from the core values Labour is meant to represent. I have been concerned about the direction of the party for some time, but to take money from the poorest in our society to spend on armaments is the final straw. I cannot in all conscience remain a member of a party that attacks the working class. I have not left Labour so much as Labour has left me”.

“I believe that we need a new party of the working class that will stand up for the rights of working people and fight the austerity policies of all the other parties: Labour, Tory, Plaid and of course Reform – all of whom would cut spending on services for working people while the richest 1% amass colossal wealth. That is why I will be sitting as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition councillor”.

“I will continue to represent the people of Coedpoeth to the best of my ability, and I believe that is best done by leaving a party committed to cutting public services and benefits and instead fighting in their interests as a TUSC councillor”.

“It is also clear that being an independent councillor on Wrexham council means coalition with the Tories which is clearly not an option for me.”

Dave Warren, secretary of TUSC Wales, welcomed Anthony as a TUSC councillor: “I am delighted to welcome Anthony Wedlake to our ranks. I believe that there are many sincere activists in the Labour party who are coming to the conclusion that Labour can no longer be regarded as a party that fights for working class people. A new party based on the trade unions and committed to socialist policies is needed, and TUSC is the first step towards that objective”.

“TUSC Wales welcomes any other Labour councillors who cannot stomach Labour’s commitment to austerity, nationally and locally, to come under the TUSC umbrella. We will be campaigning for a new workers’ party to contest the Senedd and Welsh council elections in 2026 and 2027".

Anthony Wedlake has called a public meeting of the Wrexham Trade Union and Socialist Coalition on Wednesday 9 April at 7-30 pm (Venue TBA). All members of the public are welcome. ■

Over one hundred candidates have been accepted by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee to use one of the TUSC descriptions on their ballot paper in May’s council elections after the latest meeting of the committee on March 24th – and, while the official nomination deadline is coming up fast, there’s still time for more.

This year there are only elections in 23 councils after the government, in a completely undemocratic move, cancelled polls in nine councils pending re-organisation plans.  Millions have been denied the chance to vote, on who should run their local services and on how their local councils should be organised – and what they think of the government’s new austerity agenda!

But that still leaves 1,600 seats or so being contested in the scheduled elections on May 1st, and in some council by-elections elsewhere, and in 101 of them there will be a clear socialist and trade union alternative to the establishment parties – plus a TUSC candidate in the contest for the Mayor of Doncaster.

The last time these particular seats were up for election, in 2021, there were 60 candidates who used a TUSC description on the ballot paper (and just 31 in this election cycle before that, in 2017).  The greater interest in standing this time is another sign of the growing conviction that a new, mass, working class alternative must be built – and that you have to start somewhere!

And there’s still time for more trade unionists, anti-cuts community campaigners, protesters at the latest vicious attacks on disabled people – and socialists from different parties or none – to join what will be the biggest working class left-of-Labour challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Continuity Tories’ New Labour party in May.

The final deadline for the steering committee to consider candidate applications is March 30th with the TUSC National Election Agent – Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected] – needing to receive completed applications by then. But that will be really cutting it fine so applications should be sent in as early as possible. 

The form to use a TUSC description can be downloaded at https://www.tusc.org.uk/2025-application-form-cllr/ (if you are having difficulty opening this link, try copying it into your browser).

The current list of candidates planning to stand in May’s elections using one of the TUSC descriptions is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Candidates-to-25-03-24.pdf  Most candidates will appear on the ballot paper with the description Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition next to their name but a number are using the new Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate descriptor, including two former Labour councillors in Doncaster. ■

A previous Labour councillor who left the party in protest in 2022 has been re-elected to his old seat in the West London borough of Hounslow in a significant rebuff to Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘Continuity Tories’ Labour government.

A by-election in Hounslow’s Syon and Brentford Lock ward on March 6th saw the former Labour council cabinet member Theo Dennison win 615 votes – a 33.5% share of the poll – as an Independent candidate, beating the Labour party on 603 votes, and with the Green Party third on 218, ahead of the Tories (150), Reform (149), and the Liberal Democrats (102).

Labour’s vote fell from 1,463 in the last election in May 2022 (37.8%) in which Theo, also standing then as an Independent after twelve years as a councillor in the area, had come in at second place with 822 votes (21.2%). 

No matter how it will be spun by Labour, this is a symptomatic defeat.  No wonder the government was so keen to cancel elections in nine councils due to go to polls on May 1st!  And the Tory councillors in those authorities too, who backed Labour in this undemocratic act.  In Hounslow the Tory vote also fell, from 14.9% in 2022 to 8.2% now.

“The local elections taking place on Thursday May 1st should be about choices”, is the opening line of a new campaign leaflet published today by the all-Britain Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee.

“Should we fund our public services properly or stand aside while the super-rich get ever richer?”, the leaflet goes on (see the PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Local-elections-leaflet.pdf).  “Should those we elect represent our interests?  Or put the top 1% first – the tiny minority who own more wealth than all the rest of us together in the ‘bottom 80%’?”

“The establishment parties don’t give us that choice though”, it continues.  “After 14 years of Tory policies, what real change is being offered by Keir Starmer’s Labour government?  It has even weakened its promise to curb the ‘non-dom’ super-elite, who live here but pay less tax than us.  Meanwhile Reform, also led by millionaires, are Tories on steroids, only concerned to divide working class people so that it’s harder for us to fight back”.

The leaflet, aimed for areas where there will be candidates using one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper in May, explains why TUSC candidates are different.

“TUSC was set up by the late Bob Crow”, it says.  “A legendary trade unionist, no one could doubt whose side he was on!  And we’re continuing that tradition in May’s elections”.