Make Labour accountable for its lurch to the right
JVL introduction
Perspectives on the General Election (25)
In March, Owen Jones announced in the Guardian and on social media his departure from the Labour Party and his support for an initiative called We Deserve Better. Labour List reported it at the time under the heading What is We Deserve Better, the group Owen Jones has left Labour for?
Now the group has produced the statement below including a list of independent and Green candidates they are supporting. There is some overlap between this and other lists produced by, for example we-are-collective.org, – and some notable differences. We Deserve Better is supporting more Greens while some well-known left candidates are missing from their list.
The statement says “If we don’t act, we’re showing Labour they can ignore us and continue to lurch further to the right without any accountability.” They say their goal is to raise as much money as possible and mobilise as many people as possible to knock on doors and phonebank for candidates who were caught unawares by Sunak’s snap election announcement.
The group, whose committee members are named here, is urging people to Sign up for information about campaigning for candidates in key seats.
NWI
Despairing about politics?
You can help turn it all around on 4 July
Donate now and help campaign for key candidates
The Tories are toast. Starmer’s Labour will win this General Election by default but they aren’t offering any solutions to the Tories’ ruinous record. We deserve better than this race to the bottom.
Sign up to We Deserve Better for information about campaigning in key, winnable seats near you, and donate to our emergency election campaign fund to help us build an alternative based on the politics of hope.
It couldn’t be more urgent to support socialist, environmentalist, pro-Palestinian independent and Green candidates. They are underdogs in the First Past the Post electoral system, and they don’t have an establishment party machine behind them or corporate donors. The snap election also means we have very little time, but we can win if enough of us mobilise to knock on doors and phonebank for candidates in the most winnable seats. In particular, Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North; Carla Denyer in Bristol Central; Leanne Mohamad campaigning to unseat Wes Streeting in Ilford North; Faiza Shaheen who was blocked by Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green, and the Green candidate Sian Berry in Brighton Pavillion.
Labour wants you to think there is no alternative, but there is. You can send Labour a message and support transformative policies from taxing the rich to fund public services, backing public ownership, tackling the climate crisis and opposing war crimes in Gaza and around the world, safe in the knowledge that there’s no risk of the Tories getting back into government.
Rishi Sunak unexpectedly announcing a snap election for 4th July means independents and Greens have far less time but we’re working to raise as much money as possible to support their campaigns and mobilise as many people as possible to knock on doors and phonebank.
If we don’t act, we’re showing Labour they can ignore us and continue to lurch further to the right without any accountability. Sign up for information about campaigning for candidates in key seats and donate now to help build the alternative.
Candidates we support
Thousands of people have already joined our movement and together we’ve created a campaign fund to support candidates who are part of the alternative. Here are the candidates we’re supporting – click on their name to sign up to their campaign so you can support the candidate or candidates in your region:
London:
- Jeremy Corbyn, who is standing as the independent candidate in Islington North after his factional purge by the Starmer leadership
- Leanne Mohamad, the British Palestinian independent candidate who stands a good chance of unseating Wes Streeting in Ilford North
- Faiza Shaheen in Chingford and Woodford Green, who was blocked at the eleventh hour by Starmer so he could parachute in one of his factional allies who is not from the constituency. Faiza is now standing as an independent candidate.
- Andrew Feinstein, the independent candidate standing against Keir Starmer MP in Holborn and St Pancras
- Pamela Fitzpatrick, former Labour candidate standing as an independent in Harrow West against Labour Friends of Israel member Gareth Thomas MP
- Nandita Lal, independent candidate standing in Tottenham to unseat David Lammy
- Emma Dent Coad, former Labour MP and independent councillor, independent candidate for Kensington & Bayswater
South West:
- Carla Denyer, the Green Party Co-Leader and candidate campaigning to unseat Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol Central
South East:
- Sian Berry, the Green candidate in Brighton Pavillion
North West:
- Jo Bird, the Green candidate in Birkenhead and a former Labour councillor. The incumbent Labour MP, Mick Whitley, was deselected by Starmer’s faction.
North East:
- David Francis, Green candidate in South Shields, where the Greens got the most votes in the 2024 local elections
- Sunny Moon-Schott, Green candidate in North Durham where Starmer has parachuted in Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe in Israel, as Labour’s candidate
East:
- Adrian Ramsay, Co-Leader of the Green Party and Green candidate in Waveney Valley, the Greens’ number 2 target seat
Midlands:
- Sharmen Rahman, Green candidate in Leicester South, standing against Labour Shadow Cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth MP
And the brilliant, principled Craig Murray in Blackburn!
And Gill Westcott, the Green candidate for mid devon, an XR member, arrested for climate protest, up against a hopeless New Labour candidate, parachuted in just before the election, who doesn’t know which way is up!
And regardless what the puritanical left may feel about George Galloway, he is right on the big issues – not only Gaza, but Ukraine….
And local PSC officer Hassan Kassem in Tunbridge Wells.
As neither of the 2 independent socialists standing in Liverpool are even mentioned, I’ll give the article a miss, the focus is so narrow. Cllr. Sam Gorst, who won his seat as a member of Liverpool Independents, and Ann San, a Nurse, standing in my Constituency; Liverpool Garston and Liverpool Wavertree, respectively.