Gary Freeman, Nottingham Socialist Party
Socialist Party members in and around Nottingham welcome the resignation of 18 Labour councillors on Broxtowe Borough Council, who have formed a new council group.
These councillors – Broxtowe Independents – with a combined 250 years of Labour Party membership, have announced that they will be introducing a no-cuts budget for 2024-25, continuing the policies on which they were elected in 2023.
The Broxtowe Independents now make up the largest group of the 44 councillors, and intend to rule as a minority administration.
The councillors have been in conflict with the national Labour Party machine since before Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader. During Corbyn’s leadership, Labour’s membership grew to almost 1,300 in Broxtowe. That has since declined by an estimated over 40%.
In the 2017 general election, hundreds campaigned for the current deputy leader of the Broxtowe Independents, Greg Marshall, in an inspiring campaign that cut then Tory candidate Anna Soubry’s majority from 4,287 to 863.
The reasons for the split are political. In the words of the council leader, Milan Radulovic, that Labour has “betrayed the working class… The word was change; what we didn’t know was that they meant change for the worse.”
The council was elected promising no cuts to jobs and services, building council-owned council houses, rebuilding leisure centres, and creating parks and new open spaces to represent the area’s cultural heritage around DH Lawrence.
Deputy leader Greg Marshall said: “None of that is going to change, we’re going to continue building council houses for homeless veterans, build council houses for those most in need..”
These councillors wanted to take their no-cuts budget approach into the larger Nottinghamshire County Council and intended to stand as Labour candidates this May, if selected. However, they were blocked from being able to stand for selection by the Labour Party machine.
Increasingly it became clear to the councillors that the Labour Party machine and Keir Starmer’s policies were not going to stand up for the working class, something Socialist Party members have been raising in a comradely way since the removal of Jeremy Corbyn.
Therefore, in order to continue with their no-cuts budget in Broxtowe, to be confident they could stand to continue that work in 2027, and to give themselves an opportunity to fight this May’s County Council elections, it was necessary to leave the Labour Party. They intend to make links more widely and register themselves with the Electoral Commission. Already 80 people have joined Broxtowe Independents.
The development in Broxtowe opens up opportunities to link up with other left-wing, anti-cuts and socialist campaigners, both regionally and nationally, as part of the development towards a new voice for independent working-class political representation.
Starmer’s government has no intention of providing sufficient funds for local authorities and is more interested in reducing local democracy by getting rid of district and borough councils, introducing more executive mayors.
Councillors, like those in Broxtowe, could play an important role in the fight against New Labour Mark II austerity. Councils can set budgets to meet the needs of the community, refusing to ask the working class to pay. By mobilising council and other trade unions, local residents, community groups and activists, campaigns could be waged to demand necessary funds from Starmer’s government.
Following the resignations, the Nottinghamshire Trades Council agreed to invite representatives from the Broxtowe Independent councillors to discuss independent working-class representation. This follows at least two previous public debates on the issue organised by the trades council. Ex-Labour MP and now Socialist Party National Committee member Dave Nellist spoke at one.
Although a minority, the Broxtowe Independents intend to continue with their budget and to put other councillors on the spot as to how they will vote. It may be that, despite being predominantly ex Lib-Dems, the similarly named Broxtowe Independent Group (or others) votes for the budget, or that a sufficient number of other councillors abstain, for their own agenda.
Broxtowe Independents are awaiting notification about their application to the electoral commission to register their party name. Until registered with a clear name and one that distinguishes itself from the Broxtowe Independent Group, there can be confusion.
As the Socialist Party and Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has raised in our material, registering a clear campaigning party name or standing in a coalition like TUSC avoids the problem with the name ‘Independent’, which does not differentiate between those on the left and those on the right.
Whichever name eventually appears on the ballot paper, all socialists will be showing support for a no-cuts budget and looking to participate in discussions about the next steps, in a comradely way.
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition conference
- The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) steering committee has agreed the agenda and timetable for a conference to be held on Zoom on Sunday February 2nd.
- The conference has been convened under the heading, ‘Fighting for a new party under the Starmer government. And what role for TUSC?’, as the need for a working class political alternative to the Tory-lite New Labour government becomes clearer by the day.
- The event will also include a discussion on how to achieve the biggest possible socialist challenge at the first widescale electoral test of the new government, the local elections to be held in May 2025.
- There is no pre-registration for the February 2nd conference, which starts at 11am to conclude by 1-30pm. The Zoom details will be published on the Events page on the TUSC website nearer the time.
- TUSC, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, is the electoral coalition under which the Socialist Party stands in elections. It was set up in 2010, co-founded by the late Bob Crow – then general secretary of the RMT transport workers’ union – with the primary goal of enabling trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists to stand candidates against pro-austerity establishment politicians.
- Find out more visit: tusc.org.uk