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The Workers Party of Britain (WPB), also called the Workers Party of Great Britain (WPGB) or Workers Party GB, is a socialist and socially conservative political party in the United Kingdom, formed in December 2019 and led by George Galloway, the Member of Parliament for Rochdale since a 2024 by-election.
History
The Workers Party of Britain was founded in response to the Labour Party's landslide defeat at the 2019 United Kingdom general election and the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party. It was formed with a commitment to “defend the achievements of the USSR, China, Cuba etc” and is “unequivocally committed to class politics”. The founding of the Workers Party of Britain was welcomed by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) (CPGB-ML). Joti Brar, a vice-chair of the CPGB-ML, was elected as the Workers Party of Britain's deputy leader at its founding congress. In March 2021, the party stood its first candidate for elected office, Paul Burrows, in the by-election for Helensburgh and Lomond South ward on Argyll and Bute Council. Burrows came last out of six, gaining 22 votes (0.9%).
In the 2021 United Kingdom local elections, the party stood more than 40 candidates for local elections in England.[citation needed] The WPB contested its first parliamentary seat at the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, with Galloway as its candidate. Galloway gained 8,264 votes (21.9%) and came in third, behind the winning Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater and second placed Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson. The Lib Dems came in fourth place, as they did in the previous election. Galloway concentrated on the issues of the Palestinian territories, the Kashmir conflict, criticism of Labour leader Keir Starmer, the suspension of a teacher for showing a cartoon of Muhammad at Batley Grammar School, and the reopening of a police station in Batley. The campaign received considerable media attention due to incidents of harassment during its final days. The Jewish Labour Movement called the result a "triumph for hope and decency" over Galloway's "toxic politics". Galloway vowed to challenge the result on the basis of an alleged "false statement" made about him by Leadbeater and Starmer, which he said tipped the result of the by-election.
At the party's Congress in December 2023, Galloway was re-elected party leader. Three deputy leaders were elected – Chris Williamson, Andy Hudd (Vice President of the ASLEF) and Peter Ford (former Ambassador to Bahrain and Syria). On 29 February 2024 Galloway won the 2024 Rochdale by-election. The Israel–Hamas war dominated the campaign. In his election speech, Galloway said: "Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. You will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine, in the Gaza Strip." Galloway won almost 40% of the vote and overturned a previous Labour majority of 9,668. Labour had withdrawn support for its candidate when it became known he had suggested that Israel was complicit in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Following the by-election it was announced that the Workers Party has 59 prospective parliamentary candidates for the next UK general election.
During the week of Galloway's by-election win, a Workers Party delegation was taking part in the Kremlin-sponsored World Festival of Youthin Russia.
In March 2024 the party gained its first councillor when the former mayor of Hounslow, Amritpal Mann, defected to the Workers Party.
Ideology and platform
The party identifies as socialist, describing itself as "economically radical" and "committed to class politics". It has expressed support for a planned economy. The party's platform is outlined in its 10-point plan, in which it advocates "rebuilding British industry", universal "decent housing", "free or cheap" public transportation and an end to NHS waiting lists. It advocates referenda on net-zero policies and the future of the monarch. Its manifesto states: "The transition to a Green economy should be at a pace that matches the ability of our population to afford it. We will not be seduced by the more apocalyptic Green hysteria that floods our media but we will seek rational debate centred on democratically aligned outcomes beneficial to workers".[non-primary source needed] The party supports British unionism
The party has been defined as socially conservative, for example rejecting gender self-identification, and party leader George Galloway describes himself as such. Galloway said the party was "the working-class patriotic alternative to fake woke anti-British 'Labour'".
Its website states that the party "defend the achievements of the USSR, China, Cuba etc." The party is opposed to NATO and European Union membership, with a policy of NATO withdrawal. It describes itself as anti-Zionist. One of the party's three deputy deputy leaders, Chris Williamson, said that Israel "has behaved worse than Nazis" and "must be destroyed" and "dismantled, just as apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany were dismantled",[better source needed] statements which resulted in a police investigation. According to The Guardian, the party echoes "Kremlin talking-points" on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chris Williamson, former Labour MP for Derby North (2017–2019). He joined in July 2023, and is Deputy Leader of WPB with plans to contest Derby South at the next election.
*Co-operative Party candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party. †Sinn Féin have elected members and offices at Westminster, but as abstentionists do not take their seats.