Socialist Labour Party (UK)

This article is about the party established by Arthur Scargill in 1996. For the defunct UK De Leonist party, see Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903).

Socialist Labour Party
Leader	Arthur Scargill
President	Andrew Jordan
Founded	1996 (1996)
Headquarters	PO Box 706, Barnsley. S70 9LE.
Ideology	Socialism, Trade unionism, Euroscepticism, Economic protectionism
Political position	Left-wing
International affiliation	None
European affiliation	None
European Parliament Group	No seats
Official colours	Red
Website
http://www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk/
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The Socialist Labour Party (SLP) is a far left^{[citation needed]} socialist political party in the United Kingdom. The party is led by former trade union leader Arthur Scargill, who established it in 1996 as a breakaway from the Labour Party. Its name is a deliberate nod to the defunct Socialist Labour Party led by James Connolly who was killed after the 1916 Irish Easter Rising, a quotation from whom appears on the Socialist Labour Party website.

According to accounts filed for the year of 2010 with the Electoral Commission, the Socialist Labour Party had 3,260 members excluding affiliates. It had an income of around £14,200 and an expenditure of about £10,000.

Formation

Arthur Scargill formed the Socialist Labour Party in 1996 as a reaction to Tony Blair's rewrite of Clause IV in the Labour Party's constitution a year earlier, seen as a final rejection of a commitment to socialism. The SLP advocates the public ownership of leading industries - which had been privatised under Conservative Party prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s, with the policy being maintained by her successor John Major and then advocated by Labour Party leader Tony Blair in his re-write of Clause IV.

The party initially attracted trade union figures such as Mick Rix and Bob Crow.

Unlike all other far-left parties, the SLP advocates economic protectionism and is in favour of reopening the mines.

Electoral performance

Main article: Socialist Labour Party (UK) election results

At the 2001 general election the party took about 3% of the vote in seats it stood in.

The Party managed to get its highest percentage share in any individual parliamentary constituency at the 2005 general election when it gained 14.2% of the votes cast in Glasgow North East. However, the absence of a candidate in Glasgow North East from any of the larger parties except the Scottish National Party (following the convention that the main parties do not stand against a sitting Speaker of the House of Commons) where Michael Martin was re-standing, was a probably major factor in achieving its share of the vote. Some have suggested that the high vote was merely voter confusion since as is traditional for the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin was not listed as a member of the Labour party.

The Socialist Labour Party did not contest the 2004 European Elections, but fielded a full list of candidates for England, Scotland and Wales in the 2009 European Elections, where it took 173,115 votes, or 1.1% of the national vote.

The Socialist Labour Party ran 23 candidates in the 2010 general election, who received a total of 7,196 votes, fewer than 0.1% of the UK national vote. All lost their deposits. The best results were those of Kai Andersen in Liverpool West Derby (614 votes - 1.7%) and Ken Capstick in Barnsley East (601 votes - 1.6%). In the local elections held on the same day, Andersen also received 244 votes (4.2%) in the Croxteth ward of Liverpool.

Year	Candidates	Votes	% of total vote	% vote in contested seats	Saved deposits	Votes per candidate
1997	65	52,516	0.17	1.78	3	808
2001	114	57,289	0.22	1.40	1	503
2005	49	20,167	0.07	1.08	1	412
2010	23	7,196	0.02	0.77	0	313

2010 General Election results

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	%
Ayshire Central	James McDaid	422	1.0
Ayrshire North and Arran	Louise McDaid	449	1.0
Barnsley Central	Terry Robinson	356	1.0
Barnsley East	Ken Capstick	601	1.6
Birmingham Perry Barr	John Tyrrell	527	1.3
Blaenau Gwent	Alyson O'Connell	381	1.2
Brighton Pavilion	Ian Fyvie	148	0.3
Camberwell and Peckham	Margaret Sharkey	184	0.4
Camborne and Redruth	Robert Hawkins	169	0.4
Derbyshire South	Paul Liversuch	266	0.5
Dunbartonshire West	Katharine McGavigan	505	1.2
Edingburgh North and Leith	David Jacobsen	141	0.3
Glasgow North East	Jim Berrington	156	0.5
Liverpool Wavertree	Kim Singleton	200	0.5
Liverpool West Derby	Kai Andersen	614	1.7
Manchester Central	Ron Sinclair	153	0.4
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney	Alan Cowdell	195	0.6
Newport East	Liz Screen	123	0.4
Plymouth Moor View	David Marchesi	208	0.5
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport	Robert Hawkins	123	0.3
Pontypridd	Simon Parsons	456	1.2
St Helens North	Stephen Whatham	483	1.1
Wolverhampton North East	Shangara Bhatoe	337	1.0

Internal conflicts

The SLP suffered from the entryism practised by groups such as the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), the Revolutionary Democratic Group, the Association of Communist Workers, the International Bolshevik Tendency and the Economic and Philosophic Science Review. Scargill's distrust of such organisations and dislike of Trotskyists resulted in expulsions described as the "voiding" of membership. Scargill was initially more willing to work with organisations such as the Economic and Philosophic Science Review group and the Fourth International Supporters Caucus although both groups were later expelled.

The SLP's difficulties have in part stemmed from a number of internal conflicts resulting in the resignation or expulsion of leading members. Ideological conflict between those members seeking to develop a rigid Marxist-Leninist party and those committed to Scargill's original vision of a more leftist Labour Party grew more pronounced over time. This culminated in the expulsion of the pro-Stalin group around Harpal Brar who then formed the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist).

External links

• Socialist Labour Party
• Socialist Labour Party Wales
• Party Broadcast for the 2009 European Parliament Election