Needed – a new party for working people

Brian Sedgemore

Needed – a new party for working people

BRIAN SEDGEMORE, veteran Labour backbench former MP, has resigned from the
Labour Party. He accuses New Labour’s leadership of telling "stomach-turning
lies" on Iraq and wanted to give Blair a "bloody nose". Unfortunately
Sedgemore himself is joining the Liberal Democrats.

Dave Nellist, Labour MP for Coventry South-East from 1983-92 until he was
expelled for his socialist views and refusing to pay the poll tax, commented:

"Brian Sedgemore’s defection shows the deep unease that many former Labour
stalwarts feel with New Labour. He may think this is a step to the left but
the Liberals are ultimately another party representing big business
interests."

Dave, a councillor in Coventry and Socialist Party parliamentary candidate
in Coventry North-East added:

 "Rather than giving credence to the LibDems’
anti-working class agenda, Brian Sedgemore and the 150 MPs he claims ‘loathe
Blair’ would have been better looking to setting up a new party of the Left to
represent working-class people in this country.

"When I was expelled from the Labour Party in 1992, we warned that Labour
was being transformed into a more right-wing, pro-capitalist, authoritarian
and undemocratic party. Everything Brian Sedgemore says on his defection from
Labour bears this out. Unfortunately, he has drawn the wrong conclusion.

"The Socialist Party has no false hopes in any of the major parties
representing this country’s underprivileged and working people. Instead we set
about creating an alternative – both electorally and in organising effective
protest against New Labour, Tory and Liberal Demcrat agendas.

"This offers a genuine ideological and campaigning alternative for former
Labour voters and those three million people who want to vote for something to
the left of Labour.

"Regrettably, many former left-wing Labour MPs and trade union leaders
hesitated in making a clear break from New Labour and establishing a genuine
alternative. But this hesitation has seen people like Brian Sedgemore, a
former member of the left-wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs, move to the
right.

"The Socialist Party has shown in a small but significant way the potential
for a new mass left-wing party to be established."

Dave said to any Labour MPs or union leaders who feel as disillusioned with
New Labour as Brian Sedgemore: "Don’t end up siding with another discredited
party of big business, be courageous and take the step towards helping
organise an alternative party that genuinely advances the interests of
working-class people."


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