People built Labour and people can replace it says Transform candidate in Blair’s old seat

In the fifth of our video interview series #CanaryCandidates, we meet Transform candidate Brian Agar – standing against Labour’s Alan Strickland

Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor is a new seat replacing Tony Blair’s old constituency of Sedgefield in once-Labour-dominated County Durham. And if you look for information on Google about the new constituency right now, Labour Party candidate Alan Strickland pops up straight away. But as his socialist challenger Brian Agar told the Canary, Strickland has “been parachuted” into the constituency for the general election.

At the same time, Strickland seems exactly like Keir Starmer’s type of candidate. Not only does he seem to have avoided mentioning the genocide in Gaza completely on X, but he has also been out campaigning with pro-genocide right-winger Luke Akehurst (another loyalist whom Starmer parachuted into County Durham). As Agar said, Akehurst’s position on Gaza and Palestine in general is “abhorrent”.

“So many people” want rid of the Tory-Labour duopoly

Brian Agar is standing in the constituency as a representative of the Transform Party, and he insisted that:

There’s so many people involved trying to get this duopoly out of the system altogether… People used to say that the left will never come together… They used to say that all these factious parts… [would] never ever get together. There’d always be something that was stopping them. But the left’s got so sick now, seeing what’s happened in Labour… and they have come together…

He added:

So there is a mass movement gonna happen… Everywhere you look… people are wanting it. People are wanting something different. I’m optimistic.

“They’re a parody of what a Labour Party should be”

Brian Agar said:

I was still a Labour Party member till four years ago and I’ve seen what was coming and I’ve seen it move further to the right. And then the pledges started getting dropped one by one, and then the purge started. And it wasn’t long till they were gonna get round to us so I left anyway. I thought, well, what’s the point of staying? It’s a democratic socialist party that’s neither democratic nor socialist.

Speaking about Keir Starmer specifically, he insisted:

He’s brought so many right-wing views to a socialist party and he’s tried to make it mainstream. It’s like ‘oh, this is what we should be doing in the Labour Party’. No it’s not! That’s not what we should be doing under a Labour Party. Labour is meant to be for the workers, by the workers, by the unions. Not by the big businesses, by the banks…

He’s totally turned it on its head and tried to make out that it’s what people wanted. And no one wanted that.

He also asked:

What’s a ‘Sir’ doing leading a Labour Party?

And he stressed:

They’re a parody of what a Labour Party should be. They’re a parody of what a socialist party should be… If it’s a hung parliament, I can see them joining in with the Tories as a coalition. That’s how far right they’ve gone.

Brian Agar: people built Labour, and people can unite to replace it

Speaking about the severe lack of social housing, Brian Agar argued that it’s a no brainer to invest in housebuilding. And he criticised politicians for choosing not to do it:

If you’re building up homes, there’s plenty of jobs there… It’s not rocket science. It’s just mismanagement [at the moment]. It’s governments wanting to spend money to appease their friends rather than help the public, which is what they’re meant to be doing.

He then discussed the benefits of supporting independent socialists in the election, stressing that:

One of the things about putting a group like us in is we’re free-minded. We have our own will. We’re not gonna be tied to a whip. So we’re not gonna be tied to big money – what they say we have to vote on…

I’ll try my hardest to get the investment in. I’ll try to get the houses built that we need, you know, try to bring the jobs in…

We’re in this because we’re sick of what’s happening in our communities. We’re sick of what’s happening countrywide, nationwide, UK-wide… The only way to change it is not to vote for the main three Tory parties, and I include the Liberals in that.

And even if the independent left doesn’t win now, the movement will continue to grow, he insisted. And it can replace Labour:

After the election it builds, and it keeps building. And people say, you know, ‘it’ll never happen’. You’ve gotta remember what happened with Labour… 120 years ago… there wasn’t a Labour… Labour started from exactly where we’re trying to start from now. Working people trying to do right. And they’ve gone and spoilt it for everyone.

Now we’re having to do it again… People have to get behind it again.

For more on Agar’s comments on the election and other issues, see the full interview on our YouTube channel:

Featured image via the Canary