Two hundred and forty candidates have been approved to stand on behalf of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in May’s local elections after the latest meeting of the TUSC all-Britain steering committee on 13 March.
The candidates will be contesting four constituency seats for the Greater London Authority, the directly-elected Salford city mayor, and council wards in 44 first or second-tier local authorities – just over 40% of the 105 local councils with elections this year.
And there’s still time for more trade unionists, anti-cuts community campaigners, stop the war on Gaza protesters, 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 Tory-lite New Labour Party in May.
The final steering committee meeting to approve candidate applications will take place just before Easter, with completed application forms needing to be received by the TUSC National Election Agent – Clive Heemskerk, at [email protected] – by Saturday 23 March in order to be placed on the agenda.
- Visit tusc.org.uk for more information
Why we’re standing
“I’m standing to represent the working class as an RMT union rep. The main political parties do not represent the population of this country, only the privileged few. Big business has corrupted politics in this country, the people need to take it back and elect people who are not driven or corrupted by profit interests. The whole stance on Palestine, by Tories and Labour, has reflected this – turning a blind eye to genocide.”
Darren Lumber, Stanley and Outwood East ward, Wakefield
“I’m standing as a TUSC candidate because, with over 300,000 ‘unnecessary’ deaths due to Tory austerity since 2012, and with no real opposition in sight, we are in desperate need of green, anti-cuts and anti-austerity policies for the survival of our communities.”
Laura Fretwell, Eccleshill ward, Bradford
