Progressive figures in Collective are aiming to “drive the formation of a new, mass-membership political party of the left” in Britain. But while this takes shape, it is endorsing local independents and other left-wingers in elections. It shared two lists of candidates for the local elections on 1 May, amid Labour’s plummeting popularity and the Conservative voter haemorrhage to Reform.
🗳️Thursday, May 1🗳️: #LocalElections2025
👇Who to vote for 👇https://t.co/n8xzJF93pY (Indy left candidates)https://t.co/A9VSzKa47N (@TUSCoalition left candidates).VOTE LEFT, VOTE INDY in Brighton & Hove, Buckinghamshire, Cherwell, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devon, Doncaster,…
— Collective (@wearecollectiv_) April 30, 2025
WHO CAN YOU VOTE FOR?
MAY 1st #LocalElections2025
We make it easy. Vote left, vote independent. Halt Reform, defeat Labour.
👇👇👇TUSC/Independent candidates: https://t.co/A9VSzK9wif
Independent left candidates:https://t.co/n8xzJF8vAqOn Thurs, May 1st more than 1600… pic.twitter.com/K0lujBcua7
— Collective (@wearecollectiv_) April 29, 2025
It used research from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which has been working with others in Collective to help unite the left as Keir Starmer buries the Labour Party once and for all.
Clear opportunities to vote against war and austerity in local elections
Most of the candidate endorsements are for TUSC candidates, from Hertfordshire to the East Midlands, Lancashire to Oxfordshire, Doncaster to Warwickshire, Gloucestershire to Devon, and beyond. But there is also a strong attempt at left-wing unity in an independent list including candidates from a range of different parties.
The diverse, unifying list of candidates includes people TUSC describes as having a clear “anti-austerity and anti-war” stance. These are “often former Labour Party members or, sometimes, councillors”, it explains, and they are “standing as Independents or for registered local community parties”. These include the Broxtowe Alliance in Nottinghamshire, Majority in the North East, Oxford Community Socialists, and the Social Justice Party in North Yorkshire.
Small national parties with candidates standing include Transform, some communist groups, and the Workers’ Party of Britain (WPB). The latter in particular will rightly raise some eyebrows on the left, of course. But Britain has a massive cultural divide. And if you’re in a socially-conservative constituency where it’s either the WPB or Reform, the choice for opponents of war and austerity is clear.
For many on the left, the Green Party will be a clear preference too, where anti-war, anti-austerity candidates are standing.
A united left platform can’t come soon enough
It seems fair to assume that the Labour Party’s right-wing leadership has no desire to change direction suddenly and pursue an anti-austerity, anti-war agenda. After all, its unprecedented mission from 2015 to 2019 was to destroy the hope surrounding Jeremy Corbyn at all costs. And in that context, many left-wingers are itching for the formation of the kind of left-wing mass movement Collective is seeking to foster.
The TUSC and Collective endorsements above are a helpful sticking plaster, in the absence of a united left platform. But it’s clear we need more.
There is hope. Because there seems to be a clear will to unite on the left around key policies (wages, climate, housing, wealth tax, public services, and peace). There also seems to be an awareness of the need for trade union involvement and a focus on the economic battle between the super-rich and ordinary people (which the former are currently winning), in order to truly challenge Reform and become a meaningful anti-establishment force.
People across the UK have different social and cultural views, but largely agree on economic issues like public-service funding, wealth inequalities, welfare, and even climate action. So if the left can unite around this type of message in the coming months, focusing on the areas we can all agree on, we may just be able to defeat the Tory-Labour-Reform axis of corporate plunder and hate.
Featured image via the Canary
