YP CEC Election 2026: Candidate Profiles

Below is a breakdown of answers, submitted by Your Party CEC candidates, to the Spotlight Your Party CEC Candidate’s questionnaire. This page is live and will be updated as we begin to receive further submissions from other CEC candidates.

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YOUR MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

1. Please list any past and present memberships of political parties, trade unions and other political organisations, please detail any previous political offices you have held, explain the work you undertook there and what experience you feel you’ve gained as a result.

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

I haven’t really had too much of a role and have been more of an activist but have been a paying member of the following: Labour Party 2016-2019, transform 2021, Green Party 2024-March 2025

 

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

I have stood for election as a Labour candidate in Codnor, Derbyshire (parish council) Bridlington (East Riding Council) and as a TUSC candidate in the Cornwall Council elections in 2017, 2021, 2015, each time standing on a Needs Budget platform.
Political activism.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

I am a member of the Stop the War Coalition and DemBloc and I am a supporter of Your Party LGBTQIA+. I am formerly a shop steward for the USDAW trade union and was a member of the Liberal Democrats briefly in 2016 following their firm anti-Brexit stance. As a shop steward I was mainly responsible for representing members in grievances or disciplinaries. I discovered that union powers in retail had been repeatedly curtailed which committed my belief in socialism and power to the workers.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

Member of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Held office at branch and constituency level, including Women’s Officer, branch chair, chair of LCF. Gained knowledge of the background activity that goes on to make political parties work

 

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

I was a member of the Labour party as soon as I was able to vote at 18, a civil servant in London with my first strike action for the Miners with the Battle of Orgreave in 1984 on 18 June the day before my birthday. In 1986 I moved to Leighton Buzzard Bedfordshire and joined my local Labour Party Branch where I spent my time supporting the Oldest Poppy Seller and Labour member Wally Randle, who taught me everything and we delivered our local Labour newsletter pounding the streets. Most of my activism was local while I raised my family. I fought against many closures of community facilities in my local area, like the closure of parts of RAF Stanbridge in 2013 (famous for its collaboration with Bletchley Centre WWII Code Breakers) parts that were open to the public, and I always participated in canvassing and supporting neighbouring towns to get Labour members voted into local government. I have fought to reinstate bus routes in rural areas, closure of leisure centres, high street markets to list but a few. I was expelled from the Labour party in 2020 following a suspension from 2017 for weaponised antisemitism for my support of a free Palestine. I live in a Tory dominated area since 1986 until last year, when we received a token helicoptered in Labour MP who won. I have been a member of GMB Union and am currently a member of Unite Community. When I can, I assist with telephone canvassing at Unite HQ to assist with Strike Actions. My years of community activism, forming charities, foodbank, community fridge, community centres along with my involvement with the Labour Party and unions has given me a solid foundation that I have built on year after year.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

I left the Labour Party back in 2002/3 after the Iraq war blunder and joined Stop The War Coalition to fight against the illegal and immoral wars instigated and encouraged by the Labour government. In 2005 I joined George Galloways RESPECT party and set up a branch and membership in Bradford together with some good friends and comrades. I chaired the Bradford branch of the RESPECT party for 10 yrs organising many different rallies and demos against various different policies that were not to the benefit of the ordinary working people. I supported and mentored many election candidates, male and female, young and old so that we could challenge the status quo. I always advocated for inclusiveness. As chair, I invited George Galloway to be our candidate in Bradford West to stand as a candidate at the 2012 by election. I served as his election agent and built a brilliant team around him that went on to take a historic victory from the Labour Party. I remained as a member of RESPECT until we lost the seat back to Labour in 2015. I later supported Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for leadership. When JC became leader, RESPECT was dissolved. As a healthcare trainer/Instructor working for the nhs, I have always been a member of Unison and would advocate all workers to join a union to protect their work based rights.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

I was a Labour Party ward party secretary, Constituency and District Labour Party Officer until expulsion in 1992 for supporting Independent Labour parliamentary candidates Dave Nellist and John Hughes in 1992. Since then I have had over 30 years experience helping create unity across the whole left as part of the process of building a new mass socialist party. I helped set up the original Socialist Alliance (SA) 1992, became National Secretary 1996, remaining in post until the SA was taken over in 2001. Became National Secretary again when the SA was re-launched in 2005 and remain in that position. Active in the Anti Poll Tax Union/Federation. After being actively involved in Respect, setting up a local branch, I became the convenor the Left Unity Liaison Committee, which worked across the whole non-Labour left. I set up the Rugby Red Green Network in 2009, out of which Rugby Against the Cuts developed. We stood anti-cuts candidates in all 18 wards, working with the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and the Green Party. I set up a Rugby branch of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in 2012, and became its Secretary from 2012 until 2021, when we moved. As Rugby TUSC’s Press Officer, I released 207 media releases in 10 years resulting in 517 press articles, letters, interviews including forty nine radio interviews and a couple of appearances on TV. I stood as an independent socialist member of a broad socialist slate of the No2EU-Yes to Democracy platform in the 2009 Euro Elections in the West Midlands region, calling for reform of the undemocratic EU, not its overthrow. As a member of TUSC, I stood every year in Council elections in my local Long Lawford ward 2013 – 2020. I was the TUSC Parliamentary candidate in 2015 for Rugby and Burlington. I was founder member of the Left Unity Party in 2013 and have been on its National Council ever since. I was a leading member of the Independent Socialist Network which became affiliated both to Left Unity and TUSC. I have represented independent socialists on the TUSC national Steering Committee continually since since 2011. I have been a member of the NUT (now NEU) since starting work in 1974, becoming workplace rep in my first year of teaching. I became a Coventry NUT (NEU) executive committee member as part of a left wing drive to democratise the local branch in 1977, becoming a local officer, serving first as Membership Secretary and subsequently Treasurer until retirement in 1998.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

I am not a member of any other political party (besides Your Party). I previously belonged to the Socialist Labour Party in the early 2000s and for a short time, the Respect Party around 2014/15. I joined the Labour Party when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader but left again after he was removed. I am a current member of the National Education Union and in my student says I was the NUS rep and conference delegate for my college. I am a member of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and have been active with the CSC for 25 years. I have participated in a work brigade to Cuba as well as two other study visits. I am also a long-standing member of the Palestine campaign.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

I am currently a member of Unison – in our locality I stand as International Relations Officer.

 

 

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YOUR POLITICAL ACTIVISM

1. Please breakdown any previous political actions and campaigns you have been involved with – either through helping to organise, taking part in, or instigating – and explain what role you played in each.

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

Participated in: Nationwide protest against student fee loan rises in 2010, nationwide protest against Brexit in 2017, vigil for Sarah Everard. Spoken at and led Barnstaple unite March, organised by stand up to racism, spoken at Exeter unite against the far right organised by stand up to racism. Attended Palestine candlelight vigil just before Christmas. Have an organising role in local North Devon & Torridge protobranch as chair, currently building campaigns against proposed library cuts and south west water. Founded intersectional your party initiative called ‘safety isn’t optional’ – aimed at policy direction & discussion around gender based violence

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

I have marched against for nuclear disarmament, against Apartheid, against police brutality (Christopher Alder), against the poll tax, against the far-right in all its manifestations and against the genocide in Palestine. I was sacked from the Hull Daily Mail for my union activity. I organised Hull City UNISON into a fighting organisation when it had previously been in the pocket of the Labour administration there. I immerse myself in the class struggle.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

I am a member of DemBloc – a group that campaigns for a real member-led Your Party and holds frequent meetings to keep people updated on the current events in the party and promotes individual candidates for the CEC. I have attended a national march for Palestine with STWC and will attend as many others as I can until Palestine is free.

 

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

Came late to political activism. My main activities have centered around organisational and management aspects and offering support to those who are more “up front” than me.

 

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

From 1984 I boycotted work in the civil service through union action along with fundraising for the miners. 2004 worked in London running a youth facility and Adventure Playground working alongside Other youth groups like Kick Start and campaigned for Greener Streets and Food Programme, securing £750K for various projects, keeping the community fed and maximising their job opportunities, all fighting class war, abject poverty in Southwark, Borough and Peckham, the demolition and social cleansing of the Elephant and Castle Haygate Estate, while 2 streets away million pound penthouse flats. From 2006 I started and grew a Palestine support network in the early days of facebook.  We still have lots of activists in private groups orchestrating co-ordinated direct action against the Israeli regime.  Storming websites, business feedback forums, boycotts on line of businesses.  Later came twitter storms, raising awareness, marches and protests, and mass BDS campaigns.  I am a proud member of the PSC.  Our groups from around the world under the banner group Humanity for Palestine, influenced many at APAIC in 2014. I was part of a smaller group, who financed and hosted Independent Pro Palestinian Israeli Journalist David Sheene, driving him to speaking arrangements in the UK.  Also financed and hosted Iyad Burnat (peace award recipient) from the village of Bi’lin in the Westbank on his speaking tour of the UK (brother of the film maker Emad Burnat 5 Broken Cameras). Distributed Iyad’s book (around the world) Bi’lin The Non Violent Resistance.  In 2017 myself and my Pro Pal colleagues were targeted by Gnasher Jew and Zionist David Colliyer in a dossier given to Labour HQ and the Daily Mail.  Most of us were ruined, lost jobs, (I did) our Labour Party Membership, and then went underground with our activism. In 2020, I co founded a community charity in my home town and surrounding villages.  Foodbank, Community Fridge, Social Supermarket, Community Centre.  I have led campaigns to get food waste donated by law (as in france) to groups such as this. Ran as an independent cllr  in my Tory dominated area) unsuccessfully.  Fought cuts to bus routes, implementation of pre paid utility meters, stood outside Peoples homes to prevent bailiffs entering. Assisted and still do the homeless, veterans, and refugees get access to all the help they deserve.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

As a member of Stop The war, I helped organise many rallies and demos. As Chair of RESPECT in Bfd, I again organised many rallies and demos for many different issues and causes. I was the local founding member in Bradford for the Viva Palestina aid convoys to Palestine after Operation Cast Lead in 2009. I was a group leader from my region to organise several air, sea and land medical and food convoys from the UK all the way to Palestine breaking the siege of Gaza. Having been to Gaza and seen for myself with my own eyes the misery of the Palestinian people, I will never give up the fight for the rights of all Palestinians. I heled organise and led several aid trips to the so-called Jungle Camp in Calais where we provided food, clothing, tents and other vital supplies such as medical and emotional support.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

I was convenor of Coventry Against School Closures when the Labour Council tried to close 18 schools! I was very active in the Labour Party at the time! I was Secretary of Coventry Against Racism And Fascism and helped organise a ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ concert at the Butts Arena with The Specials, Selector and Hazel O’connor. I have been involved in a number of anti-racist initiatives including under the auspices of the Anti Nazi League and other umbrella groups. I organised a campaign against Universal Credit when it was introduced in Rugby. I instigated a campaign to retain a local bus service to and from our village.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

I was heavily involved in the Che-Leila Youth Brigades in Palestine during the Second Intifada. I served as a volunteer with the Palestinian Red Cresent Societies during the siege of Ramallah. I then returned to Palestine and worked for a Palestinian water NGO before getting involved with the setting up of a Palestinian-led NGO called Project Hope working with children in the refugee camps in Nabalus. We then extended this to the village of Jayyous where I established a branch and lived for some months during which time I was involved with solidarity work, observer presence and activities with children in a community heavily affected by the apartheid wall, settler violence and enclosures.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

I stand as treasurer for our local Palestine Solidarity Campaign and am part of the local planning group – we organise as a collective an umbrella of actions either as part of the national agenda or decision making at a local level. I am currently part of planning for our local AGM and an upcoming Barclays actions across two social justice groups. Previously, I’ve been part of organising local marches, local assemblies, film showings at various local independent cinemas, travel to national marches & direct action. In my role with Unison I have been working on the LGPS divest campaign with other officers and PSC across Hampshire and I spoke to the Palestine motion at conference. I take part in actions organised by Stand Up To Racism – I have just recently spoke to a motion at regional which passed to reaffiliate.

 

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YOUR HOPES FOR YOUR PARTY

1. What does Your Party mean to you, what do you want to see Your Party members doing more, and how would you support that work from within the CEC?
2. What processes and safeguards would you want to see implemented to curb factionalism in the party and ensure that members remain sovereign when it comes to important decisions.

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Your Party is a place where everyone can come together and start to campaign and fight for what is right. I’d love to remove barriers that would see more members participating, holding educational seminars etc.

2. I think factionalism is okay, but it tends to become dangerous when it drowns out ordinary member’s voices. I would ensure branch visits prior to CEC meetings to collect members’ voices so that we can improve processes to their standards. The CEC should be answerable to its members, not the groups the CEC belongs to.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Your Party means a chance for the working class to have a voice. This has been absent since 1995 and I have spent that time, as a member of the Socialist Party, calling for and working for political representation for the working class. Your Party members in Cornwall are already in action, supporting the “Needs Budget for Cornwall” campaign. As a CEC member, my priority would be ensuring members, organised in their branches, control the party via annual conference.

2. Healthy debate is normal and to be welcomed. There will naturally be a struggle between contending tendencies but this can be accommodated within an organisation which has internal democracy. I stand for all elected reps to be paid no more than the average wage of those who elect them; elected reps to be recallable, should a majority of constituents desire it and for all all positions to be subject to yearly or biennial elections.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I believe Your Party is our last chance to see a real socialist programme of government in this country and to really organise at the grassroots level. If we can successfully help branches to form in every constituency and give them the funding and advice they need to reach out to their neighbours, we can make a real change and give people a real voice. If elected to the CEC I would prioritise solutions for members to communicate with each other both nationally and at constituency or regional level..

2. I would campaign against the formation of slates and the use of MPs social platforms/mailing lists to promote specific candidates or messages. There has been a “Jeremy vs Zarah” narrative form around this election which I believe will taint the CEC and risks a massive disengagement in the party from those that identify with one particular MP if their candidates aren’t elected in their specific region. I would fight to ensure that at least a percentage of conference attendees is always decided by sortition to ensure that people that can’t/don’t wish to join branches or other groups have an opportunity to be heard.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. YP is a chance to be something completely new and different in the politics of this country. It’s exciting to think that we can actively engage with people and value what they have to say and incorporate this into national policy, alongside local campaign issues.

2. I’d work to make sure we remain committed to this ideal, calling out authoritative or disrupting behaviours. We can disagree respectfully and build consensus through listening and debate. We need to remember we have more in common with each other than we have differences, and take the fight to our real political enemies. I will support and uphold the constitution on these matters. OMOV is at the heart of our organisation and should remain so.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Your Party feels like its our last chance to build something honourable, honest and uncorrupted politics.  For me I call Politics, community support/activism.  It gives me hope that individual people like me, in our thousands, can change politics for the better and leave a better world for our children and our grandchildren.  I want to see YP members form People’s assemblies, free to support their communities because they know what their communities need better than westminster.  It will be the CECs duty to provide all the tools and finances to empower the branches and the assemblies.

2. The processes and safeguards to me are simple.  I have spent most of my adult working life developing these in various job roles and volunteer roles. Clear, plainly written, unambiguous policies need to be developed, with members.  Every member and member of the CEC must sign up to this programme. If people deviate or seek to undermine the party, there will be a clearly defined process, with recall face to face opportunity for discussion and resolution.  We must all pull together. 

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. For me, YOUR PARTY is the last remaining political hope for many millions of working-class people who have nothing but only the burden of shedding their blood, sweat and tears for the benefit of the bosses and the multimillionaires. When all the other political parties are in cahoots with each other to keep the poor in their place, it is a duty upon us all to come together and create a political home where we can all belong, succeed and prosper. I would advocate all members to actively take much more participation in political policy formation so that everyone can feel that their grievances and needs are being taken into the equation. As an Independent CEC member, I would continue to encourage everyone to take ownership of politics and make it work for the many, not for the few. I would have regular monthly meetings in the region in order to gather as much feedback from the membership so that I can represent them at the CEC.

2. YOUR PARTY was always meant to be different from the other existing parties. YP will be a bottom-up party that listens to its membership and is instructed by the membership to fight for the membership and not for the political careers of those in the CEC. I would not be part of any faction. I would see myself as working for those who send me as their delegate. As someone who spent some years working as a relationship therapist for RELATE, I fully understand that people can have many differences but we must remember that we really have far more in common, than that which divides us. We must get over our egos and give a little more for our mutual good and come to some mutual understanding and agreement.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. I am standing because I see Your Party as the opportunity we have been waiting for. I have been working with others across the left to build such a new mass, socialist party for over 35 years since my expulsion from the Labour Party. In the short term I will work for Your Party to stand widely in elections to promote no-cuts budgets, using Council’s prudential borrowing powers and their reserves whilst building a mass campaign with other local authorities demanding the government adequately fund essential services. I would see my role within the CEC being to facilitate that through our local branches. I view local branches as the key to democracy within YP.

2. I wouldn’t want to curb factionalism as its part of a healthy democracy within a socialist party. Members should have the right to form sections and factions around any issue they wish to campaign around as long as they don’t conflict with our broad socialist principles. Members will always be sovereign in any party structure I was involved in creating. Our voice as individuals is crucial both through branch representation and through one member one vote on line ballots. Both methods can work within a well organised federal structure.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Your Party must succeed. We can’t afford it not to. The inexorable rise of the far right and the continued drift towards authoritarianism, neoliberalisn and eco-fascism can only be slowed by a mass member party which stands up for socialism. No other party is going to do this and this is our generational opportunity. We may not get another one. We need hard structural restrictions to make sure that the party is not captured by a particular faction and that it remains a party led by the working class. For the CEC this means that we must have term limits or colling off periods after a term in office, open publication of agendas and minutes, transparency of interests, branch mandates for all significant decisions, worker friendly meeting times and workers wages for any paid roles within the party. Empowering branches is of fundamental importance and branches should get at least half of party funds and membership fees.

2. One of the main ways we can avoid the centralisation of power and keep members engaged and included is for the party to form policy working groups on key areas such as housing, climate, public ownership and so on. Members should feed ideas in through the branches, facilitated by the CEC and then policy proposals taken to conference. We need bold, radical and forward thinking socialist policies. The process will unite the party and the outcome will give everyone something to rally behind. Without doing this, policy will drift, power will centralise and members will disengage.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. I have said this from the beginning – this is the first time in a long time where I felt I had a political home and that small bit of hope was all I needed to commit and be all in. And I think that there are a lot of us feeling like this, wanting this to work and willing to put what we can into it to see that happen. I feel like Your Party is it’s members – so when the questions asks what do you want to see us doing more of, the answer is everything. The power of the movement lies in our branches and communities. As part of the CEC – I feel the work should be focused on accessibility – if we are looking as part of our outward statement to change the balance of power at every level in our society then we need to be showing that in our actions and processes. And that includes whilst building our structures, this process for example, I have witnessed the ongoing barriers. It is not enough to say any ordinary member can be on the CEC – what are we doing to make that a reality.

2. Gosh – this is something that my mind spends alot of time on and I imagine that it is not just me. I mean to answer this collaboratively and generously as I envisage that is absolutely what we need to be doing when discussing all things within this party. However there is a part of me that when I start thinking about what is currently playing out in terms of factionalism that just wants to tell everyone to pack it in. Because whilst I see that we need to be supportive and work together – my question would be, what are those that are part of this creation of factionalism doing to safeguard against it. And why are we having a narrative that it is only when the CEC is on board that something can be done – where is the accountability of members now, in this current moment, in their current actions. With respect I feel like there are moments where I am being sold a solution to a problem that doesn’t need to exist – and this makes me sad because this feels like the policitics we have, not the politics I want. We are a party that is saying we are trying to do different but still relying very heavily on old ways – on what was and what is.

 

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LETS TALK POLICIES

On Disability

1. A disabled person’s care needs don’t end when a parent or carer reaches retirement age but the carer’s allowance does. What do you think the CEC and Your Party could do to address this injustice?
2. Are you committed to the social model of disability?
3. How do we ensure the rights of disabled people are taken seriously?
4. How will you ensure accessibility and inclusivity for disabled people in Your Party?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. I’ve always been firmly for Universal basic income, but as an immediate improvement to parents of disabled children or unpaid carers however, carer’s allowance should be a full time wage.

2. Yes, I’m committed to the social model of disability.

3. We listen to them, and include them in decision making processes that directly affect them.

4. I have AuDHD so I’m well aware of the shortcomings the party has had in regards to accessibility. I would ensure accessibility and inclusivity by not only creating guidelines for branches to follow with disabled people leading the initiative, but also by arguing for ring fenced funding so that accessibility doesn’t depend on local access to funds. 

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I don’t know enough about disability benefits to comment authoritatively but in general, my stance is that we live within a state which begrudges paying the social wage (as it is a drag of profit). We will always struggle to get what we need under current circumstances. I currently lead Cornwall TUC’s “Needs Budget for Cornwall” campaign and am liaising with families of children with special needs/learning disability who are currently looked upon a burden.

2. Social work students learn about the social model counterposed with the medical model. As a Marxist, I subscribe to the social model of disability with the caveat that we need to change society for disabled people to be enabled.

3. By making provision for them within Your Party and joining them in their wider fight.

4. Accessible meeting venues, signers, exploring barriers to disabled people becoming involved, reserved places for disabled people in the party structure.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Quite simply we need to make carer’s allowances last as long as that person is a carer. We additionally need to increase it from the paltry £83 a week it currently is and increase the maximum amount that working carers can earn to still be in receipt of the allowance.

2. I’m not sure on the wording of this question! I fully believe that disabilities are exacerbated by societal conditions and that we can do much more to make it easier for disabled people to participate in society in the same way as everyone else. I reject recent legislative changes such as “premium” cars being removed from the Motability scheme when these cars are among the most reliable and comfortable to drive – two very important attributes for disabled individuals.

3. At a party level we ensure our constitution recognises the social model of disability and ensures that access to participation in the party is always considered first and foremost.

4. When hosting in-person events (venue accessibility, nearby accessible and affordable accommodation, organised accessible transport between venue and accommodation) and when hosting online events (ensure quality closed captions and a BSL interpreter).

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Currently, we live in a disjointed system where healthcare and social care are separate entities, and often provided by private companies or thrown onto relatives without adequate support. Elderly carers, who may need support themselves, are expected to continue caring for others. This is neither sustainable nor socially acceptable. We therefore need to work to create a better system. Short term, we need to campaign that (at the minimum) carers’ allowance continues for as long as the care continues, and also to raise the amount considerably. There is an army of carers out there who are saving the government a fortune while being forgotten and neglected. This needs to change.

2. Short answer, yes!

3. By listening to them. “Nothing about us without us” because anything else is patronising.

4. By building these values in as a constitutional right and enforcing them vigorously. To work with disabled people to help decide what is needed and necessary. By having hybrid meetings as S.O.P.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Carers Allowance should continue for as long as the carer is caring for a disabled person, and not finish when they retire.

2. I am most definitely committed to the social model of disability.

3. By having a disabled working group and forum.  They know whats best, they live it.

4. By continuing through legislation to make our transport, town, facilities, and workplaces more inclusive.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. Parents/Carers play a vital role in looking after the most vulnerable often with very little emotional and financial support. Having worked in the nhs for many years i have seen for myself the effect on carers as well as other members of the family who often suffer quietly, just getting on with it as a duty. There should be much more support for carers and parents who often have to not only give up their employment but also need to adapt their normal lives in order to become carers for a loved one. We must invest more in social healthcare in parity with physical healthcare.

2. People are born with disabilities but this can not define people. In my experience as a healthcare worker in the nhs and also in the community, I know that people with disabilities can lead normal lives if they are supported with overcoming the obstacles and barriers that are faced every day. It is perfectly reasonable for a caring society to do everything to enable those who need support rather that put people in boxes labelled “DISABLED” and restrict their life chances. People with disabilities are experts in their condition and should be involved in decision making and policy making that will affect them directly. We must listen and do everything that we can to give people the respect and dignity that everyone deserves.

3. Disabled people can be supported in many ways such as including disabled people in decision making, providing opportunities for participation in policy making, providing adequate advocacy so that disabled people know their legal rights and any support that might be available. People with disabilities and their lived experience can be a vital part of policy making and should be encouraged to speak up as experts and their suggestions should be implemented as much as practicable.

4. Disabilities can come in many various and different forms ranging from physical to emotional. Humans are not just one or the other, but both. I would support disabled people to have a strong voice in all decision and policy making so that they are not treated unfairly or disadvantaged by the decisions made by everyone else who may not have the lived experiences of disabled people.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. As a CEC member I would work for it become party policy, and then campaign for carer’s allowance to be extended.

2. Yes I am totally committed to the social model of disability. We have to do everything we can to remove the barriers we all have to face, especially those which make life so difficult for anyone with any special needs, physical or otherwise.

3. Firstly, we encourage the formation of a less abled members section if one doesn’t exist. Then we listen to everything they say and discuss with them how best to address any concerns and in what timetable. The CEC should then draw up a list of priorities based on those discussions and, if necessary, promote their use and implementation.

4. Again the first thing to do is to find out from disabled people themselves what they think we should do as a CEC. More abled people aren’t always able to understand the needs of those less able. For example, accessibility must include the ability for everyone to attend meetings, and that means no physical or mental barriers. Hybrid meetings can help meet those needs, but finances and expertise will need to be made available to enable branches to put hybrid facilities in place.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Capitalism treats care as disposable and unpaid labour as invisible. I believe that Your Party should commit to ending this arbitrary cut-off for carer’s allowance and replace it with a universal, non-means-tested carer’s income that reflects the real social value of care. Care does not stop at pension age, and neither should support. No one should be forced into poverty because they care for someone they love. The current system is cruel by design and it must be dismantled, not tweaked.

2. Yes, unequivocally. The social model of disability recognises that people are disabled by barriers, exclusion, and political choices, not by their bodies or minds. We must rejected deficit-based definitions and campaign to abolish so-called work capability assessments. These are designed to punish and exclude. Instead, I believe that we need to focus on the redistribution of resources and power so as to remove physical, social,.economics and attitudinal barriers. The social model should be taken as a direct challenge to austerity, privatisations and a hostile welfare state.

3. Rights mean nothing without power and material enforcement. To take disabled people’s rights seriously we must end austerity, guarantee secure incomes through strong social security, end punitive benefit assessments, and restore fully funded public health and social care as universal services, free at the point of need. Any socialist party or government must recognise disabled people as experts in their own lives, and ensure disabled people’s organisations have decision-making power, not just a consultative role. Under socialism, the economy exists to meet human needs, and that includes restructuring work, housing, transport, and public life around disabled people rather than forcing disabled people to adapt to an ableist system.

4. A socialist party must practice internally what it demands of society. Accessibility and inclusivity are, therefore, non-negotiable principles and not mere afterthoughts. We need to ask disabled people what is needed for them to be included. This means that we need to be ready to provide accessible meeting spaces, online participation as a standard option and materials in multiple formats as default. It may mean paying for access costs. Decision-making structures must be flexible and inclusive and I strongly believe that we should be prepared to reject productivity standards that mirror capitalist exploitation. Most importantly, disabled members should be represented at every level of leadership,  , with autonomous disabled caucuses empowered to shape policy. A socialist party does not “include” disabled people out of goodwill; it is strengthened by disabled people’s leadership and collective struggle against oppression.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. The way I see Your Party and therefore the CEC working is building power within the branches and communities – we take our views and we use this to shape our policy and agree what action we want to take and what that looks like. So for the example of such injustice within the carer’s allowances I would suggest there is already much resource out there that I feel we would benefit from mapping out – I appreciate we are a party that is starting from ‘scratch’ but that does not mean we cannot look to the expertise that may already be out there and adapt it for our purposes. I would suggest we gain the views of our communities – I would be wary of letting the work fall to those experiencing the barriers so there is a balance to be had to ensure co-production and not expected labour. We could create working groups, we could look to call in support from organisations/individuals who want to speak to our actions with their research. It is my opinion that the main part of anyone who will be on the CEC and their practice is to bring in people’s experiences to really understand how we need to move, however we need to work together to first understand how best to do that. The CEC would also be part of bridging and ensuring our messaging around disability justice is heard in the right spaces for enacting change.

2. Yes – I am a social worker and we study the social model of disability and the model states that disability is something that is created by society. It is barriers and inaccessibility that create disability. I think that any process or policy making will require a social model of disability lens during its creation. 

3. By building it into our foundations – by making it non-negotiable. And that means whenever we are taking an action, we consider what this means to all our members. I am grateful to be part of the possible repping in the South East so far however I have witnessed many barriers moving through this process where we are not considering differing needs.

4. By speaking to our members, by asking them how we can make this work for all of us. I am very interested in the building of structures within a new party because effectively you are both working with a clean slate and a wealth of experience. If you consider and I guess this touches back on to a previous response – the knowledge we already have and use this alongside the voices of our members and communities, you could develop a theory of change based on politics as we know them now and what we want to see. And that should be at every position, part, area within the party, every single aspect of the party.

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On Benefits

1. What is your vision for sickness, disability, carer, child and unemployment benefits?
2. Do you support a Universal basic income / Universal basic services?
3. Currently, Amnesty International calls the social security system in the UK ‘Consciously cruel’. What do you think needs to be done to tackle this?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. As mentioned before, it should be universal basic income. All benefits are not sufficient to live on and seeks to punish those not in work as opposed to empower them and enable them to pursue things in their own time that might fulfill them on their own terms.

2. Yes!

3. Attitudes on social security need to change — instead of viewing people by their capacity to make money, we should view people who rely on social security as exactly that … people. Any changes or policy on people who rely on social security should be done in consultation with them.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. We haven’t moved on from the Poor Law model of deserving and undeserving poor. Benefit claimants internalise this attitude and it poisons that attitude of people in work towards those claiming benefits. This all contributes towards a sick society that produces sick people. Your Party must encourage “claimants” (that word is a loaded term) to take part in the party and the political process in general.

2. UBI doesn’t address the fundamental inequality in society which produces the attitude referred to above. Leaving the capitalist class in control will mean UBI will always be under pressure and funds devoted to UBI will be diverted from other parts of the social wage. So I do support it as a potential improvement but with reservations.

3. I think Amnesty International took that from Ken Loach! It is indeed consciously cruel for the reasons outlined above. We could, as a party, encourage civil service unions to stop participating in this cruelty along with a general campaign to make the public realise there is plenty of money in our society and no need to cut/ration/sanction benefits.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Benefits are an extremely divisive subject and are all too often weaponised by the right-wing media. Your Party needs to tackle the bias against benefits. We should ensure that if someone is a full time carer for a sick or disabled individual, then this can be their sole focus without them having to seek employment just to make ends meet. Remove the stigma from being sick or disabled and ensure there are no future caps on child benefit introduced.

2. Yes. This is a core tenet of the socialist society I wish to see.

3. As in Q1, the social care system is used by the right-wing press as an easy way to manipulate its readership into blaming the most vulnerable in society for all its ills. A strong press regulation should exist to prevent this sort of victim blaming.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. As said previously, a much more effective social security system is needed. Something like UBI combined with UBS for those needing additional support could be a good way to deal with this so I’d like to see this actioned.

2. Yes!

3. And yes, Amnesty International are right. We have descended from a system that supports to a system that punishes, yet any of us could need social security at any time through no fault of our own. We need to tackle societal attitudes and its going to be a difficult job. However, it’s been done before and can be done again.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. It is my vision that we should stop calling them BENEFITS. That makes them sound like a perk.  They are not.  They are the collective social network that supports our most vulnerable when they need it.  Social Security should stay in line with VAT, and we should look to increase them in line with our European counterparts.  They need to be increased for decades of deliberate stagnation.  It is the poorest who support our economy the most.  They spend every penny just surviving, while areas of our society don’t spend their money in the uk or pay their fair share of taxes in the uk.  Poor people keep the economy going.

2. I support Universal Basic Social Support with greater Services provided.

3. We must be more compassionate. Stop vilifying our most vulnerable people in society, stop funding private training companies on the gravy train for those out of work. Legislate to remove pre paid utility meters.  And I will repeat above, stop calling them BENEFITS. That makes them sound like a perk.  They are not.  They are the collective social network that supports our most vulnerable when they need it.  Social Security should stay in line with VAT, and we should look to increase them in line with our European counterparts.  They need to be increased for decades of deliberate stagnation.  It is the poorest who support our economy the most.  They spend every penny just surviving, while areas of our society don’t spend their money in the uk or pay their fair share of taxes in the uk.  Poor people keep the economy going.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. All healthy and able-bodied people should work and contribute to society and help build a country that can afford to live at a comfortable standard of living. Most people want to work and support themselves and their families at the same time paying taxes for public services. There are those among us that want to work but are not able to do so due to physical or emotional disabilities. This often leads to disabled people feeling lesser or unuseful in society leading to further frustration leading to a spiralling pattern of unwellness. I strongly believe that a kind society should look after those that need a little more support. Benefits are often the last choice rather than the first choice. A sure sign of a sophisticated society is the way it looks after the weak and infirm. Even cave men did this.

2. Yes. It gives dignity and self-respect to those who cannot work.

3. People on benefits must never be made to feel that they are a strain on society, especially if they have contributed to the system. There are times when we all need some support either when ill of after an accident or when we lose our jobs. People on benefits and pensioners often live very unhealthy lives due to low benefits. Many are assessed and put through lengthy processes that make people feel embarrassed. This can result in benefits being taken away or stopped. Many don’t even claim to save themselves the indignity of having to go through such processes, often living in dire poverty which can have negative outcomes for their own health as well as the health and wellbeing of those that depend on them.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Benefits should be the same as a living wage, not just the minimum wage. No one should have less than that to live on. Carers should be paid the living wage if their care provision is not dependent on benefits. Child benefit should be locked to ensure it doesn’t fall in value, and extra support given to children from single parent families.

2. A universal basic income would enable everyone to have a basic income without a means test and I would fully support that. We are the 6th wealthiest county in the world and no one should be suffering poverty. Universal basic services would ensure free, universal access to essential services, including healthcare, education, housing, and transportation. I would fully support that.

3. I agree totally with Amnesty’s view that the social security system needs to be overhauled. Harmful social security cuts, sanctions and caps must be reversed. I campaigned vigorously against Universal Credit when it was first introduced. Universal Credit was introduced as a deliberate attempt to save £12 billion from the welfare budget. Claimants are worse off on Universal Credit than on previous benefits and get no benefit income for the first 5/6 weeks, this can be up to 8 months. Sanctions are used if appointments are missed through no fault of claimant. New claims have to be initiated and managed on line thus seriously disadvantaging those not on the internet. Universal Credit pushes claimants into abject poverty. TUC research suggests it will make 62% of claimants worse off.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. My vision for sickness, disability, carer, child and unemployment benefits is one based on three principles: universality (no means testing), needs first and social security from cradle to grave. From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.

2. Yes, I do support both UBI and UBS. UBS are particularly important because they directly decommodify the things people need to live: healthcare, education, water, housing, energy, food provision and internet access. When these are publicly owned, democratically run, and free at the point of use, people are no longer forced to rely on markets or employers to survive. UBS strengthens collective provision, reduces inequality at its source, and ensures that no one’s quality of life depends on their ability to sell their labour—this is a core socialist principle. I would, however add one caveat to my support for UBI which is that it should not be used as a substitute for public services, collective bargaining, or disability and housing support. A flat cash payment cannot replace tailored support or protect people from rising rents, privatised healthcare, or employer power.

3. If a system is “consciously cruel,” then tinkering at the edges won’t cut it. We need to stop treating poverty as a personal failure and start treating it as the political choice it is. That means replacing punitive assessments with unconditional support, funding services instead of starving them, taxing extreme wealth to rebuild a real safety net, and designing welfare around dignity rather than deterrence. A society as rich as the UK has no excuse for cruelty — only a responsibility to guarantee that everyone can live, not just survive.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. There are many people I love that experience the absolute unnecessary harshness of this benefit system and it is my opinion that a complete overhaul is required. I would want to see a system that is compassionate, invests in our people and steps away from the consistent hoop jumping that I see those I love having to endure.

2. I am a supporter of UBI – from what I understand of it the considerations are that it is unconditional and look to rebalancing some of that power imbalance between employees and employers. It would provide accessibility and stability – it would do away with the idea of means tested and all the very many possible reasons the government can find for you not to receive your income. I know there is already research out there however it could be a part of our work to understand what UBI could look like by speaking to our members and communities. We could be part of feeding into a larger mobilisation of collating this information and campaigning.

3. I would wholeheartedly agree with Amnesty International – it is this hostility that we seem to find in many of our systems where it feels like the state lends a hand but ever so begrudgingly – it is a passive or maybe not so passive, aggressive stance that gives the energy of the person needing to be grateful that they are getting any help at all. And this feeds into societal narrative about how we may view a person ‘reliant’ on the state. I despise it so much – why are almost all of our policies that are meant to aid so punitive? Why does it feel like its always a no first and then you have to fight, like we have to first hit crisis. In my role I have to strongly advocate for services for our children, I would rather that I didn’t have to and that time could be put into creating opportunity for them to thrive, not survive. This is what I mean when I talk about having humanity and our communities voices centred in our policy – I have answered previously in response to carer’s allowance, I would adopt a similar approach to change here.

 

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On Jobs

1. How do we generate more well paid jobs in this country?
2. Do you believe the wealth gap between employers and employees needs to be addressed and, if so, where would you cap it?
3. Do you think the real living wage should continue to be voluntary or obligatory?
4. Do you think we should introduce a ‘back-to-work’ scheme in this country where people are given an annual allowance, instead of fortnightly benefits (for a period of time), so that they can become self-employed instead?
5. Do you think think the Employment Rights Act is adequate and, if not, why not, and how would you want to improve it?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. End low pay by design – minimum wage is not enough to live off, support worker owned businesses and invest directly in ‘good jobs.’ I believe that UBI will also allow people to participate in the arts too, creating flourishing entertainment sectors.

2. Yes. I would support pay ratio limits, so the highest paid individual cannot earn more than 10-20 times than their lowest paid individual.

3. Obligatory.

4. Yes! Some people work better for themselves.

5. No. I don’t think it goes far enough to protect workers. We need rights from day one. More protections for disabled people in work and end exploitative practices like zero hours contracts, personal improvement plans etc.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Scrapping the anti-union laws, democratising the unions, Your Party orientating towards the trade unions, £15/hour minimum wage now, bringing the economy into public ownership, ending tax havens and repatriating the £1 trillion lying there and re-distributing it. Shorter working week with no loss of pay. Basically, socialising production and basing investment decisions on need.

2. Emphatically yes. It would be worked out by the measures outlined above.

3. RLW needs to be scrapped and £15 minimum wage fought for.

4. Reframing monies received as an allowance would be helpful but are we talking about coercion into self-employment or something else?

5. ERA is an utterly cynical stitch-up between the discredited Labour Party and the equally discredited TUC in an attempt to support Labour into power in the 2024 general election. It would be improved by immediately scrapping the Cameron government’s anti-union strike threshold law as they promised.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. We can do this in a number of ways but most important in my view, is the removal of privatisation and private equity from industry. Profit is stolen labour and this must be invested into the workers. Workers truly owning a business and making business decisions to grow a company is entirely realistic and achievable. If the workers choose to elect a managing director from their numbers then they are free to do so, but we should absolute reject the principle of investors that make a single financial contribution to a business and then forever take dividends that should be paid to workers.

2. No business would exist without the workers. We need to acknowledge this first and foremost and while it is true that some businesses are built on the good ideas and experience of one individual, it doesn’t mean that they should earn 1000% more than the people that make their business exist. If we had workers owning the means of production, then there simply wouldn’t be a pay gap, but before we get there, we can cap CEO/MD salaries and we can change the system to prevent them being paid in line with the personal allowance and taking out dividends or director loans etc. to supplement their earnings in a low tax/tax-free way.

3. I commend the small businesses that pay this but it should be obligatory and it should increase each year.

4. I believe we should change our marginal tax system in general so that people who work two jobs (i.e. while trying to build their own business) aren’t punished for their entrepreneurship.

5. I commend the upcoming changes in the ERA to remove the two year waiting period for protection against unfair dismissal but this should be from day one, not 6 months. We should abolish the concept of zero hours/gig workers and ensure they are paid a living wage not linked to how many deliveries they make, but while this system exists it should have the full protections of the ERA.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Going to turn this around slightly and say, more jobs should be well paid. If a job needs to be done, people should be paid fairly to do it. There have been so many cuts made through the lens of “austerity” – especially to things like the arts, sports, museums, music, local services – that simply restoring investment to public services will generate jobs. Additionally many people would like to work for themselves, especially in creative fields, but insecurity and overheads either puts them off or makes it difficult to earn a living. UBI would certainly help in this sort of scenario.

2. Yes it does. Nobody works a billion times harder than somebody else! I haven’t got a figure in mind but I’ve heard a figure of 20x from bottom to top. So if the people at the top want more, the people at the bottom have to get more too.

3. Obligatory (and should be higher).

4. No comment on this as I haven’t looked into it, but see also comments about self-employment above.

5. Again, not completely up to speed on this (I’m now retired!), but things like workers and union rights have been eroded and the constant threat of “burning unnecessary red tape” would undoubtedly be a threat to health and safety at work. So I’d like to see it reviewed and made properly fit for purpose. This would include things like the right to strike and to picket.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Reduce business rates, particularly high streets which are dying. Tax breaks and grants to encourage more business to start up.  Small family owned businesses also pour their money back into the local economy.  Introduce more apprenticeships in our trade industries.  Build/develop more council houses, like we did after WWII. Creating jobs and tackling housing simultaneously.

2. There is massive inequality between employers and employees.  Eg wages for an administrator role in an office has remained the same for the last 15 years, in my region.  We must introduce a real living wage. and stop subsidising the big businesses, eg like Tescos, who made unprecedented profits in 2024 (3.182 million up 10.9 %) and then top up their workers wages with Universal Credit because they don’t earn enough. That Scam has to stop.

3. A real living wage should be obligatory.

4. I would welcome a ‘back to work scheme’ as previously stated, its small businesses in their local community who put money back into their communities along with the workers who spend their wages locally.

5. I know the Employments right act has been eroded over the last 2 decades.  I am no expert, and will answer the question honestly, I would need to research and speak to those more qualified than me, along with workers from all industries to understand how their working week is affected, eg Zero Hours Contracts.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. We should encourage more manufacturing in this country rather than import everything from abroad. We could encourage more cooperatives to form profit sharing businesses. The problem often is that the fat cats take the lions share of all the profits. Profits should be fairly shared with those who work hard. Rather than pay the bosses millions, we can reward the working people with a better share of the profits.

2. The gap is astronomical and has to be looked at in a serious way. Of course, those who invest expect profits, but the profits should not be obscene. I would cap it at a fair ratio.

3. Definitely obligatory.

4. Sound good on the surface but I can foresee issues. An allowance would need to be complimented with proper support and guidance to stop people failing and falling back onto benefits.

5. (missing answer)

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Replace capitalism with socialism, nationalise the commanding heights and all public services.

2. Wealth needs to be redistributed equally amongst all workers, partly by a more aggressive taxation system including a wealth tax.

3. Obligatory.

4. Don’t mind but that’s not important.

5. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is a step in the right direction but restrictions remain for eg. 6 months at work before a worker can claim unfair dismissal. Should be immediate.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. If we want more well‑paid jobs, we have to stop pretending the “free market” will magically deliver them. It hasn’t, and it won’t. A socialist approach starts with taking economic power seriously: build a National Investment Bank with real democratic oversight and give it a mandate to pour long‑term, patient capital into the industries this country actually needs — green energy, public transport, social care, advanced manufacturing, and community‑owned enterprises.

2. Of course; the wealth gap between employers and employees is a structural injustice that concentrates power at the top while everyone else is told to “tighten their belts.” It should be capped following extensive consultation and a part of a planning process for a rebalanced needs focused economy. You can’t set the cap at a particular level without looking at all the other levers of economic planning. I would suggest that the public have an already pretty well developed sense of what is fair. Most surveys suggest that salaries which are more than three times median wages would be a good place to start.

3. Obligatory, but it is not currently at the right level.

4. I think that a “back‑to‑work” scheme only makes sense if it gives people real freedom, not another bureaucratic shove toward precarious work. An annual allowance could work — but only if it’s unconditional, generous enough to live on, and treats self‑employment as a choice, not an escape hatch from a punitive system.

5. I don’t think that the Employment Rights Act goes nearly far enough. Every worker should get day‑one rights, strong protections against fire‑and‑rehire, sector‑wide collective bargaining, and real enforcement with teeth.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. This is a very interesting question, as they all are and I am unsure how to answer this (and I would like to point out at this point in case it wasn’t already obvious! I am definitely not having all of the answers at all, that is why we all need to work together, there are many things I need to educate myself on a lot further). I guess I would need to understand what is meant by well paid – I feel like there is a lot to consider when we are talking about employment and I see it in my head as the ideal being well resourced, so we are talking work/life harmony, security, well numerated and well supported. But what came to mind straight away is I’m perhaps somewhat ignorant here but I feel like we already have jobs that are incredibly important but are not waged appropriately at all such as people in the caring profession. I would want to see that readjustment.

2. Any wealth gap needs to be addressed and redistribution of wealth as we know is very much needed. When I set out to stand – I promised myself that I would do it as I am because then whatever the outcome, I would have stayed in alignment. In the spirit of true transparency at one point of this CEC elections process I started to prang out, feeling like I have a certain level of knowledge on everything. And then I think of our MPs we have now (even though I also don’t see this role as that of an MP but some of the CEC election process feels like it leans that way sometimes) – they are not having an expertise on everything, they seek expert counsel, working groups etc and I would even go as far as to suggest they shouldn’t have an opinion on everything considering some of what we hear. In my lane I would be calling in the knowledge and experience around me to help me understand better what a possible cap could look like but I imagine I would be facilitating our responses as a collective as to relying on mine.

3. I believe it should be obligatory – being unsure if you will be able to cover your basics should not be an option for anyone, whether in employment or not. I understand that a lot of work has gone into the collation of calculating the real living wage and I am not succeeding at this moment to properly articulate what I am feeling – but here’s a go. I imagine it is still not enough and if I understand it correctly this is a campaign to try and get better for those that need it within the systems we have. Ideally we would be fighting for new systems with much more scope and opportunity to understand and support what a real living wage looks like for our communities.

4. That’s an interesting idea and I don’t think I have heard of this before – I would like to hear more about what people think of this and to see the research. I would like to understand for example what are the proposed benefits of such a scheme. And I would want to understand if UBI for example would have the considerations as part of it, to be self employed. I would like to reiterate with some of these answers, I would feel more confident acknowledging that I might have an opinion on this but if we are talking about the role of the CEC, my opinion would not be and should not be a driving factor – we would want to be making these decisions together and we would do that imagine by pulling together our experience, data and perhaps expertise in its different forms.

5. No its weighted on the side of the employer, we could look to bring in more power for unions and collective representation.

 

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On Housing

1. How do you think we can improve housing in deprived areas, so as to tackle the urgent issues of rising rents, unaffordable housing, shortage of social housing and, in some areas, Airbnb or developers taking over all free properties that could become homes for people? This issue is badly affecting young people who can’t afford the rent on their low wages and also older people 50+ who also can’t find enough work
2. When we win an election, and if it’s within your remit to do so, what measures would you implement to address the homelessness crisis.

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. As someone from Devon I know the issue with housing intimately. I’m for ending right to buy to keep local stock of housing, mandatory affordable housing, I also support abolishing landlordism but in the meantime, rent control, higher council tax for second homes and seizure of homes that have been empty for more than 3 months is a good start.

2. I would provide stable housing without expecting people to address issues that led them to homelessness. Housing is a right not a privilege. I would invest in social housing, using public land and funding to build affordable, secure homes. I would also push for stronger protections for renters, ending exploitive practices that landlords engage in.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. There is a huge housing crisis in Cornwall – 22000 on the waiting list at the same time as Cornwall Council feeding developers hundreds of millions of pounds to build anything but social rented homes! Don’t worry, we’re onto them with Cornwall TUC’s “Needs Budget for Cornwall” campaign. This advocates the hundreds of millions being channelled into private hands to be diverted into creating a direct labour organisation building housing for need, not profit. There are a host of other measures a local authority could take to alleviate the crisis but until Your Party gets going, we only have councillors who work against our interests.

2. See above plus immediate end to Right to Buy and the Bedroom Tax.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Social housing should be the sole remit of local authorities and private landlordism should be abolished. We should immediately commence a national council house building scheme and tax property developers (who have failed in their obligation to provide affordable housing for many years) to achieve this. Airbnb would not be abolished in this country, but it would be confined to only providing holiday homes that aren’t suitable for day-to-day domestic use (such as for camping/glamping etc.). We should introduce total bans on second homes in areas where there are waiting lists for accommodation such as Cornwall, Devon & Wales and these could be bought back by the Local Authority under a compulsory purchase scheme such as in the Housing Act 1985 (Part 2).

2. Any vacant properties would be used for housing the homeless immediately, regardless of any legal challenges that might arise. Where the property is deemed to be a second home, acquired only for tax purposes or other unsuitable reason, it would revert to the local authority and be repurposed as affordable housing.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Housing and homelessness is a huge issue and will need tackling from several directions. Personally I’d like to see an end to things like buy-to-let mortgages, “investment properties” being built and then standing empty, and no-blame evictions. I’d also like to see renters able to use their rent payment record as part of their credit rating. Low cost mortgages from councils/government for those who are first time buyers, social housing for those preferring to rent. Refurbishing existing properties to a liveable standard and redeveloping brownfield sites rather than endless urban sprawl which mainly benefits developers. For starters!

2. I’ve covered most of this above as regards the long term, but there also need to be more immediate measures regarding homelessness and those who live on the streets. Extending emergency shelter provision comes to mind, as does ensuring these are truly safe spaces. Working with homeless charities to see what needs to be done, and (longer term) trying to prevent homelessness in the first place.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. We need a programme of building more council houses (not privately rented by the council and not housing associations (effectively private landlords)).  We need to remove the unfair and crazy system of “bidding” on social housing properties.  We solved the homeless problem during the Pandemic which shows it can be done.  I would like to see more innovative programmes like small housing villages, (1 person dwelling spaces) built from containers etc.  I think we should look at other countries. There is a great programme by TV Presenter George Clarke called “Does Vennia have the best council housing” for inspiration.

2. We need to address the mental health and substance abuse crisis in our country, we need to provide more free accessible help to this community and then get them into housing with continuous support to help them maintain their housing.  Working closely with Homeless organisations, Mental Health Organisations, Veteran Organisations etc.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. There definitely needs to be a big house building project in this country in order to get over the housing crisis. We see homes being bought up and rented at very high unaffordable rent. Often people cannot afford to pay and are priced out of renting as well as buying. Housing should be a human right and Govt should see this as a priority. A lot of the rental properties are of such low standards that children and the elderly as well as the sick can develop respiratory issues further preventing people from working.

2. More new home building projects as well as preventing housing being bought out by large companies. Using and utilising the many empty and derelict properties that have been left to rot away.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Housing is a basic need on a par with education, health care and social services. All are inter related. In the long term we should aim for housing to be provided free on the basis of need, in the meantime we should work to dramatically improve the amount of social and affordable housing, freeze all rents, and insist on minimum standards of repair and maintenance that all landlords have to observe.

2. As above, nationalise all land and aim for housing to be provided free on the basis of need.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. (missing answer)

2. (missing answer)

 

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Our home is such an integral part to our wellbeing and safety and as you state in the question there are so many barriers to us accessing something affordable and I would add, fit for purpose. I would imagine that a key focus would be on creating affordable and accessible housing and capping rents. Also a focus on putting empty properties into public hands. And for there to be restrictions in place for developers – as to what that would look like specifically, I imagine people a lot smarter than I can help us understand. As with all our societal concerns – they are interlinked so you would also need to look at how we create stability through income.

2. To acknowledge that what we are referring to here in this question as a homelessness crisis is not just a shortage of affordable, accessible and suitable homes but that we are also talking about consistent failures across our services to meet the needs of our people. Therefore when we address the homelessness crisis we need to be also addressing our crisis in social care and welfare and the systems that we have that oppress and discriminate (also love that your question started with when we win an election, I’m absolutely here for that).

 

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On Inequality

1. Where do you stand on Trans rights and do you believe a woman’s place on the CEC should also be open to Trans women?
2. What is your stance on a youth/student wing, Disabilities group, BAME group, Women’s group or a LGBTQIA+ group within the party?
3. If it were within your remit, what measures would you want to see put in place to combat Transphobia, gender stereotypes, racism, religious intolerance and the general ‘fear of the other’ within our communities, for example in education, in health, in the work place and in negative media portrayals.
4. How do you think we can tackle the centuries-old culture of blaming poor people, and address the real causes of poverty?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Trans women are women, their liberation is vital. Yes I do.

2. These are all essential groups that are needed, so long as the women’s group is intersectional.

3. Prejudice grows when people are misrepresented or are pitted against one another. I would push for measures that educate, protect, and empower rather than punish or divide. In education, it is important to teach age appropriate lessons on the diversity of society. Schools should normalise our differences, not fear them. In healthcare, training is vital to ensure staff remain respectful and provide informed care to everyone. In the workplace I woud support stronger protections against discrimination, fair pay and clear routes to challenge harassment safely. On media, I would challenge harmful narratives and support humanising representation of marginalised communities. We should centre lived experience not panic.

4. We need to start challenging ideas that poor people are to blame for their own poverty. There’s always a reason, be it a loss of job, social circumstances or disability/sickness.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I support trans rights and would support a trans woman taking a seat reserved for women.

2. Young people, based on my observations are largely absent from Your Party although they are seen on street protests demonstrating against racism, climate-change etc. That must change! In principle, I support youth/BAME/women etc groups but there need to be safeguards in place which prevent empire-building and careerist tendencies. A structure needs to be found where the different groups feed in seamlessly to the main party.

3. We will always have negative stereotypes while capitalism exists. We need to hammer home the idea that we are the working class, whatever colour, sex, orientation we are and that we should be united against the common enemy. The current attempt to impose the IHRA definition of anti-semitism in the NHS is a massive threat to health workers and has to be opposed.

4. See above. See our history to understand it – Peasants’ Revolt, Henry 8, enclosures, vagabonds, Speenhamland/Work houses, deserving/undeserving poor. Along with that history is a proud history of working class resistance.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I am a committed LGBTQIA+ ally and was extremely disappointed to see the gendered language used around CEC “gender balance” that excluded nonbinary comrades. I believe CEC regional seats should have been comprised of either 1 Man and 1 Woman or Trans woman or 2 Women/Transwomen.

2. They are important, but care must be taken to ensure they are not sidelined but are always kept at the forefront of how the party runs.

3. Transphobia (and other fear of the other statements) would be classified as hate speech and social platforms would be heavily fined for each instance of it they allow to stand. I believe this would trickle down into society and form a healthier general discourse.

4. We need a political party that isn’t owned by big business and private lobbyists. By ensuring that no Your Party MPs accept gifts or donations above £250 as in our constitution, we could then have a political party that speaks to the real causes of inequality – billionaires that don’t pay their way

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. I stand for trans rights and believe trans women are women, so yes women’s places should be available. I further believe that the current wave of transphobia is the tip of a large misogynistic iceberg, so a threat to trans women is a threat to us all.

2. I’d certainly support the other groups you mention to have proper representation within the party, including CEC level, as it says in our current Constitution.

3. Combating these attitudes (including scapegoating the poor) needs to be societal and legislative. I can’t believe how far and how quickly gains have been reversed!

4. Again, we need to reverse a whole way of thinking. Not easy to do overnight, but people tend to empathise more with individuals than homogeneous groups, so telling stories of those people might be a way in. We need to make perjorative words (eg ‘scroungers’, ‘workshy’) unacceptable in describing the poor in the same way as we do for words that are racist or homophobic. But most importantly, we need to end poverty itself.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Yes I believe there should be a place on the CEC for Trans.

2. We should have working groups for Youth/Student, disabilities, BAME, womens and a LGBTQIA+ within the party, without  doubt.

3. I would definitely like to see more educational programmes/services rolled out to our communities (education age appropriate) and workplaces.  Education is the key to this.  I think we should also introduce new legislation or enforce existing legislation to tackle mainstream media misrepresentation, non representation and outright lies.

4. We need to stop calling them poor.  It’s a  working class war that has been raging upon us for decades now.  We need to change the public narrative through a balanced media and rid ourselves of foreign influence directing the narrative.  We need a public relations department that calls OUT any misinformation, deliberate lies and direct unwanted foreign influence. And they need to do it immediately, not days or weeks later.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. I believe that everyone has equal rights regardless of their identity. I do not believe in identity politics where we go and divide ourselves into ever smaller groups. Everyone has different needs and we must be sensitive to minorities of all shapes and colours. The best way we can all support each other is to want the best for each other in spite of all our individual differences. Having said that, I feel that women are already under represented and need to be encouraged a lot more to come forward and participate in decision making in politics.

2. I don’t think we constantly need to divide and subdivide ourselves into smaller and smaller groups. We should encourage everyone to stand for each other as we would for ourselves and understand that we are not all the same but we all want the same from our lives, respect, dignity and equal opportunity to thrive in our own individual ways. Encouraging minority groups should be an important step to understanding their needs and expectations so that we can make sure no one is excluded or marginalised. Having a collective voice is an important way in which change can be brought about.

3. Better education to learn more about that which we fear from each other. More integration and social activities to learn from each other in a respectful way.

4. The poor are often poor because the rich take all the pickings. I would say, it is the poor working people who produce the wealth and should have a fair share of the profits. The real causes of poverty is the system that is weighed heavily against the ordinary working people. WE must not be cowed by the rich, we hold the real power in our labour.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. I fully support all trans rights and believe that anything open to women must also, of course, be open to trans women.

2. There should be factions for any minority or oppressed group within Your Party wherever members of such communities fell the need for them, without restriction.

3. Strong educational programmes to illustrate the positives in all communities, backed up by rules and/or legislation when anyone transgresses.

4. Massive redistribution of wealth through very progressive taxation policies including a wealth tax.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. I am not a huge fan of positive discrimination. I don’t believe that any places on the CEC should be reserved to any particular identity. We are better than this as a party and don’t need to reflect the structural prejudices built in to capitalist society and political parties.

2. I think that one of the key roles of the CEC will be encouraging and supporting members who want to create and develop wings and groups. All of these (and more) will add to the richness, diversity, inclusivity and sense of belonging for different groups within the party.

3. We tackle transphobia, racism, religious intolerance and every other form of manufactured “othering” by treating them as political problems, not personal quirks. That means embedding anti‑discrimination education in every school, enforcing workplace rights with real teeth, funding community‑led services, and breaking the media’s grip on fear‑mongering by demanding public‑interest journalism over profit‑driven division.

4. As above, by developing public interest journalism and alternative media platforms for public debate. 

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Trans rights are human rights and whatever work is needed to make that our reality should be all of our work. Trans women are women therefore a woman’s place should be open to Trans women.

2. I am absolutely here for it – we as members should be able to advise on what will be the most accessible, supportive and beneficial to them ways to be in the party and this may look like having dedicated groups.

3. One of the things that drew me to this party was that it felt like the first time I was hearing people say with their chest – these are our societal inequalities and these are the driving factors. I wish for this party to never shy away from saying unequivocally we stand for equality and justice and that needs to be a constant in our messaging. I would want stronger legislation for intolerance and hate – I know there is law around public bodies for example but don’t experience this as having much weight in action. We need our messaging in the workplace to be coming from all levels and the numerous and varying equality statements that we see need to be embedded in our practice and process. We need to be using the research we have that highlights our many injustices in our systems to push for change and we need to work together to build that power. I was very grateful to be privy to the house of people’s assembly last year where they created a charter and there was wonderful discussion around the accountability that the media needs to have. And not just media, our public figures, anyone having a platform, there should be consequences to spreading untruths.

4. Many of us suffer from the systems that are in play and we are in this together – as opposed to the very few that are making our decisions, that are with the power. I feel like the answer to this is a culmination of all my answers – we need to have very clear messaging as to what is driving the inequalities we face and act as we propose to move, be consistent and work at building our communities, growing campaigns, creating policy that works for the change we want. And use our research and data to back our movement.

 

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The Environment + Green & Renewable Energy

1. Consider the challenges of building renewable energy. What is your view on how we should handle the trade‑offs between industrial growth, renewable construction, environmental impact, and the concerns of local people, for example, in the proposed Morgan & Morecambe Wind Farm?
2. What do you think should be done to tackle global warming and environmental degradation?
3. How do we achieve a just transition from the fossil fuel extraction industry to carbon neutral occupations?
4. How do you think we can tackle the lobbying power of the fossil fuel and animal agriculture industries?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. We urgently need to expand renewable energy, but how we do it matters just as much as how fast we do it. The climate crisis is real and accelerating, and delaying action has serious consequences, especially for working-class and marginalised communities. That said, renewable projects should not be imposed on communities without proper consultation or care for local environments. Decisions must be transparent, evidence-based, and genuinely participatory, with local people involved early, not after plans are already fixed.

2. We need a rapid transition to renewable energy, through public and community ownership. Keeping energy affordable, democratic and sustainable. This includes major investment in insulation, public transport and green infrastructure, creating well paid jobs as part of a just transition for workers too.

3. A just transition has to start with workers and communities, not targets alone. People who have powered the economy for decades should not be discarded in the shift to a low-carbon future. We need guaranteed retraining, ensuring pay, conditions and pensions are protected and regions need long term investment. We also need to ensure that workers and communities have a direct voice in the planning process, as well as having a system backed by public ownership, so the transition serves people and the planet, not private profits.

4. I think lobbying to influence policy is wrong and the practice should be stopped.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Global warming has been weaponised by the far-right and the capitalist class in general. It is utopian to believe the existential crisis facing us will be solved without ridding the plant of capitalism. I have seen nothing from Your Party which prioritises the reversing of global warming and that needs to change fast.

2. See above.

3. See above.

4. See above.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. We are facing a climate catastrophe and we must accelerate our adoption of green energy. While in some instances this might upset locals I personally don’t believe offshore wind is a reasonable thing to protest about given its benefits. Wind, Solar and Hydro should be the focus of a 10-year green energy push which can be funded by levies on big energy companies.

2. We are currently on track to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030 – this is one way in which the government is tone deaf to the needs of real people as the national infrastructure simply does not exist for many people to charge EVs and isn’t likely to exist in a mere 4 years time. We need initiatives like this backed up with real affordable EV options for all and cheap and plentiful EV charging. An EV scheme to get people into an EV car subsidised by the government would be essential and could create many thousands of jobs.

3. The costs of transition should fall on fossil fuel corporations and accumulated wealth, not on workers or energy users. This means windfall taxes, ending subsidies for fossil fuels, and redirecting that money into public green investment. We need to nationalise our energy industries to democratically plan and execute the transition.

4. Take money out of politics. By adhering to our constitution we can prevent Your Party MPs from taking gifts or donations and therefore ensure they don’t have interests outside of serving the public.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. This is a challenge, but one in which we have at least made a start in this country. People seem to generally see the need and benefits of renewable, but there is still tension about the siting of projects. I can’t speak for the particular development mentioned except in general terms, that sensitive environments should be protected. This also goes for farming practices.

2. In short, everything that could be done, must be done. And quickly.

3. Getting the green economy right is essential. We cannot keep having infinite growth with finite resources. People working in threatened sectors (fossil fuel industries etc) need reassuring that their livelihoods will not be devasted, but transferred to greener industries (with free retraining where necessary).

4. Clamping down on all the “incentives” currently on offer from powerful lobbyists would be a good start and could easily be legislated for. Neither should they be allowed to publish or promote factually inaccurate campaigns.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. We need to introduce new legislation that can also be retrospectively applied to all housing/industrial/ commercial builds.  They must have solar panels/ rain water collection for each property to sustain itself.  Every new large building programme must have an autonomous environmental impact study.  All large infrastructures must also have solar/water collection facilities.  Roads and busy walk ways can collect electricity too. We must look at simple readily available systems to start to tackle our energy and environmental crisis.

2. (see above).

3. (see above).

4. We must legislate against ALL lobbying of businesses to parliament.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. (missing answer).

2. We only have the one Earth, we must protect it in any way we can. Short term profiteering cannot be the justification to destroy the planet. We have a duty to pass on a better world to our children. We must strive to produce less waste and find ways to recycle what we can. Our air and water systems must be protected in order for the survival of many different species of plants and animals that are on the brink of extinction. Preventing environmental degradation will also help improve health for all living things. We must find ways to produce sustainable green and clean energy and gradually stopping or at least reducing the use of fossil fuels..

3. (missing answer).

4. (missing answer).

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. We have to put environmental concerns first in all industrial planning, and that may lead to some initial conflicts with those not wanting unsightly but necessary buildings such as wind farms. Again, education and explanation will help.

2. This can not be approached country by country. Agreement must be made globally and enforced. Easier said than done, but the higher you aim, the further you tend to get!!

3. Gradually I’m afraid. Thatcher’s destruction of the coal industry, more to break the NUM than for environmental reasons, was immediate and devastating to mining communities. That must be avoided.

4. Once again by a mixture of education and (gradual) legislation. Legislate when the education has begun to sink in. Not overnight.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. We can’t pretend the transition to renewable energy is neutral — it’s a political choice about who benefits and who bears the cost. I think that projects like the Morgan & Morecambe Wind Farm should go ahead, but only with democratic planning, public ownership, and guarantees that local communities share in the jobs, revenue, and decision‑making instead of being treated as an afterthought.  We also need to ensure that green energy solutions are genuinely green, so scientific input is essential in the decision-making process.

2. By taking power out of the hands of the industries causing it and putting it into the hands of the public.

3. A just transition from the fossil fuel extraction industry to carbon neutral occupations requires guaranteeing every fossil‑fuel worker a well‑paid, unionised green job — not “retraining” as a euphemism for unemployment, but a state‑led industrial strategy that builds renewable energy, public transport, insulation, and ecological restoration at scale.

4. By forcing these industries to comply with increasingly stringent legislation so that they leave the market altogether, allowing the state to step into energy production and distribution. Small scale farming would be encouraged through legislation, finance and support for organic and cooperative farming. 

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. I think as with anything you want to be building with communities – you need to listen locally and decision making to be with the people. I feel like my response below to just transition fits here too.

2. We look to the experts – those who have put all their time and energy into bringing us our solutions. Some of the answers are in these questions such as renewable energy, reduce our consumption (we can look to degrowth, restore our nature and protect and invest in our oceans and our forests).

3. Its the consideration of all communities this will impact and how will they be supported in the changes  – I hear this as understanding your people in each area and planning in a fair and inclusive way. This will be reskilling workers for new jobs within the industries, person centered process and decision making and assessing against social inequalities.

4. Create legislation that disallows lobbying funding and influence in government.

 

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The Economy

1. Imagine Your Party has just won the General Election. How do you think Your Party could best manage the hostile economic reaction of the capitalist markets and hostile hyper capitalist countries?
2. What is your view of economic growth versus de-growth, and what do you think the key economic policies of Your Party should be?
3. Do you support the Wealth Tax?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Economy is not my area of expertise. I believe any decisions should be taken in consultation with experts

2. Again, this is sadly not my area of expertise.

3. Yes, I do support a Wealth Tax.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Your Party won’t win a general election without a generalised upswing in consciousness which YP necessarily has to be involved in bringing about. In this situation we can assume similar developments worldwide. If there are no parallel developments we will indeed come under enormous pressure. An aroused and united working class will not allow gains to be taken away. A clear-sighted awareness of where we are at each stage and confidence in our ideas will enable us to cope with any challenge.

2. I have already enunciated the policies we should take on the economy. Producing for need rather than profit will have the same effect as “de-growth”

3. I support taxing wealth. 165 billionaires resident in this country are a rich resource! But a wealth tax is a reformist measure which the capitalists can take back at a future date. We need to make billionaires history.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Short term we should expect hostility from capital and plan for it in advance. Mitigate this by being decisive and enacting our core policies as hesitation causes market turmoil. Longer term, we should ensure that we nationalise key industries quickly and that this translates to a lower cost of living quickly to ensure we are a popular movement. We should implement tight controls on finance to avoid other events like the 2008 global crash that people are still feeling today.

2. GDP is a terrible measure. It is anti-human and I have never personally been better off just because GDP increased by half a percent. Your Party should aim to preside over the growth of good sectors – renewable energy, public transport, socialised housing and healthcare while aiming to shrink bad sectors such as private rent, fossil fuel extraction and anything involving destruction of the environment.

3. Yes!

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Managing both the media and the markets is likely to be a big issue for YP. Economic policy isn’t my area of expertise but we need to be robust in both implementing policies and defending them. Proving to the public that our policies work and are benefiting them is essential.

2. I’m quite interested (but not knowledgeable) about the principles of economic de-growth and this is something we should probably be discussing as a Party. Many people are no longer buying into the “more is better” narrative and this is something we could build on.

3. Yes, absolutely, although I’m not yet decided on what form this should take.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. We need a dedicated PR Team and a dedicated economist team, to respond to scaremongering of the capitalist markets and countries.  Regular live TV news broadcasts, maybe from our own TV/Radio Channels. I would like to see the likes of Prem Sikka and Gary Stevenson on board.

2. I will answer question No 2 honestly, although I have managed million pound budgets in my various jobs  and fundraised hundreds of thousands over my working life, I cannot answer this question.  I would take advice from the likes of Prem Sikka and Gary Stevenson.

3. I absolutely support a wealth tax.  I support an asset wealth tax too.  It only needs to be 1 or 2% to raise millions, the duke of Westminster cannot pick up his properties and move them somewhere else.  It is a myth that wealth money trickles down.  It does not.  Wealth is hidden in trust funds, offshore accounts, and non domicile residency evading tax.  The rich will not leave the country and take their money elsewhere, it’s already not here.  It is the ordinary workers of this country that keep this economy going, not the Tax Evading Wealthy or non UK business like Amazon.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. (missing answer).

2. (missing answer).

3. YES. Those with immense wealth should be forced to contribute much more than those who have very little.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. The way some vociferous members of Your Party seem to want it, the markets will have little to worry about with their Labour mark 2!! If YP does become a party committed to implementing bold socialist policies of the type I have been outlining, it will have to be careful.

2. Your Party will hopefully work to overthrow capitalism and move towards full blown socialism at a pace that’s as possible given that we live in a very largely capitalist world.

3. I totally support a wealth tax. Vast amounts of wealth are both obscene and not necessary.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Markets must adapt to socialism and not the other way around. As a socialist government would need to ensure that we stand firm, don’t panic, don’t appease and definitely don’t pretend that markets are neutral technocrats. They are political actors defending power and wealth and we need to treat them as such. As a socialist government our best defence will be democratic legitimacy, plus, of course, lots of preparation. We would need to move fast in the first 100 days (markets and their media will attack hesitation) so this means that we will need to get legislation on public ownership and worker’s rights passed as quickly as possible, along with signalling our tax reforms from the very start to say to the markets that the direction of travel is set. At the same time we would need to use temporary, targeted capital controls to stop capital flight (tools which capitalist states also use when it suits them. We should reduce dependence on private banking by creating state-backed sources of credit for infrastructure and housing. This entails public banking and a National Investment Bank. It will not be easy at first but over time things will get easier  – as the economy becomes less reliant on globalised finance and hostile trading partners, we will be weakening their leverage. Finally, as a party, we will need to make sure that our communication is extremely clear. If markets retaliate, we will need to say plainly that ‘unelected capital is trying to veto your vote’. For the public who are not convinced this will reframe the inevitable economic turbulence as a democratic issue, not a technical failure. Our bottom line must be firm and unbending. We will then be able to get the North Sea oil flowing to Cuba!

2. I don’t think the question is really ‘growth’ or ‘de-growth’, but rather growth for what, for whom and at what environmental cost. My view is simple – de-growth for the destructive stuff (arms exports, fossil fuels, speculative finance, advertising etc.) and expansion or growth where it improves life (social housing, public transport, education, health, cultural production, care work and renewable energy). We need to end GDP fetishism, introduce a 4 day working week, bring in universal public services and ensure the public ownership of natural monopolies.

3. Of course. How could I be a socialist if I didn’t?

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. There are going to be some questions that whilst I can acknowledge are really important, I don’t think I will always be best placed to answer – this is one of them. I would imagine that we would want to bring into our movement those who have a specialist knowledge and I think that’s part of why Your Party is going to be so powerful because we acknowledge we achieve when we come together and share our experience and knowledge. We stand firm in what we believe and we continue to move that way and commitment stays to our people – I apologise for not being able to speak further to it.

2. This may be a simplistic opinion but it is what I have – what we are doing is not working, our continuous reach for economic growth is detrimental to all types of life. Our focus should be on valuing and honoring what we have in terms of resource, not seeking further destruction.

3. Yes and I am going to refer to research on tax justice that speaks to this suggesting it could raise £24 billion a year – this would go in some small part to redistributing wealth.

 

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Foreign and Defence policy

1. Do you commit to a complete arms embargo on Israel and ending all military cooperation, and what do you think about the global militarisation of foreign policy generally, including the planned defence of Ukraine.
2. Do you believe the UK government is complicit in the Palestinian Genocide (named as such by the UN 9/25).
3. If it were in your remit, would you reverse the proscription of Palestine Action?
4. What are your thoughts on defence expenditure in general, but also in light of the fact that we’re going through a cost of living crisis in this country and our taxes could instead be used to ease the financial burden on households and support our public services?
5. What does a ‘free Palestine’ look like to you?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Yes! Arms embargo now. I think that militarisation is just a promise of violence which I am against.

2. Yes.

3. Yes.

4. It is a waste of money and we could spend more elsewhere.

5. One state, 1948 borders.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I support cutting all relations with the Zionist state. Only an organised working class (with Your Party central to it) can halt the march to war. No support to Putin’s Ukraine adventure but, equally no support for the utterly corrupt and fascist-tainted Ukraine regime. Ukraine’s people have to rise up and take the economy into their hands.

2. No question. I live for the day when Starmer, Blair, Netanyahu and Trump are able to swap stories in their prison cell.

3. Yes!

4. Let’s, first of all, re-frame it as “war expenditure.” All war production to be converted to socially-useful production. Trade unions are central to this. Scrap Trident and the nuclear submarines. Abolish the standing army and replace with a defence militia organised something like Territorial Army lines but with no officer class and full trade union rights.

5. Free Palestine means an end to the colonial-settler genocidal state and Palestinians reclaiming the land they have been evicted from. Israelites who accept the new situation should have full rights alongside their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Palestine should be part of a federation of Middle Eastern peoples organised on a socialist basis. This means the surrounding corrupt Arab states have to be renewed and the same with the US/UK/Germany. We are talking revolutionary upheavals here. If we are not careful, it might seem all too much, far in the future and we might feel disempowered. But if we effect the necessary change here, the international situation can quickly change.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I would go further and end any diplomatic relationship with Israel. I would also put troops into Gaza and the West Bank in a peacekeeping capacity to protect Palestinians from Israeli aggression in a state that we now formally recognise.

2. Yes!

3. Yes!

4. I long for a world where we no longer manufacture weapons. Any government should aim to leave the country and the world in a better more peaceful condition than they found it. I believe in nuclear disarmament and the redistribution of those funds into public services.

5. The arrest, trial and conviction of Israeli government ministers, the Likud party and all members of the IDF that have committed war crimes. The dissolution of the IDF and Israeli security guaranteed by a coalition. The return to the 1967 borders and the removal of all apartheid infrastructure across the West Bank.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Yes to the embargo. Re global militarisation etc, we should be committing ourselves to peace and negotiation before we ever commit to wars on foreign soil. The world is a dangerous place and we should be trying to make it better, not worse, for the ordinary working people of any country (who are always the first to suffer). International co-operation, not conflict. Which probably sounds quite idealistic, but I’m not going to apologise for that!

2. They certainly have a case to answer. I suspect there is more going on than any of us realise.

3. From the evidence I’ve seen, yes. Further, I would want to repeal all the legislation which tries to stamp out the right of peaceful protest.

4. Defence expenditure is too high, especially in our current economic climate. Welfare, not warfare.

5. This would be whatever the Palestinians want it to be. Only they have the right to tell us what a free Palestine should look like.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. YES WE SHOULD STOP FUNDING, ARMING AND SUPPORTING ISRAEL AND WORK TOWARDS WORLD PEACE THOUGH NEGOTIIATIONS.

2. YES, THE UK GOVERNMENT CURRENT AND PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN NOT ONLY COMPLICIT BUT INSTRUMENTAL IN THE PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE.

3. I would absolutely reverse the proscription of Palestine Action, commute all legal connected legal cases, all connected arrests, and free all those currently on remand.

4. There is always money for War but not for Welfare.  I would cancel the latest budget increases for our defence budgets to do with increasing our arms and weaponry.

5. A free Palestine looks like borders from 1947, a return of all stolen land, a repatriation of refugees.  Under one sovereign government that is not the current isreali regime.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. The full arms embargo on the genocidal state of Israel should have taken place long ago. Many lives would have been saved by now. In my lifetime, our country together with its master, the USA have caused havoc around the world and continue to do so. The war in Ukraine is the most current example where people are needlessly dying because the UK is complicit in egging on Ukraine into a war that it cannot win. We must push our UK Govt to stop this double standards. As a lifelong member of Stop the war, I am against any war that is unjust.

2. YES, No question about it. Keir Starmer said it himself that Israel has the right to starve and take away fuel and water from the Palestinian people. Starmer said in his own words that he was a Zionist. It couldn’t be clearer.

3. YES, Immediately. It should never have been proscribed in the first place.

4. The world is different now to what it was 70 yrs ago, warfare has changed too. We don’t need the so called trident nuclear defence system for which we are paying millions and don’t even control fully. We need to invest in the people who are suffering the effects of the cost of living as a result of bad decisions made by respective Govts of all colours. It seems that the Govt are always complaining that there is not enough money for public services but somehow it can always find billions to fund wars and warfare in other countries while the poor and elderly have to decide weather they will eat or heat their homes many dying every year as a result.

5. Free from Israeli control. Free to elect their own representatives. Return of all Palestinian lands from the river to the sea. Return of all refugees to their rightful land and homes. No further interference from the west. Free trade and relations with the rest of the world.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Yes I would commit to a complete arms embargo with Israel and end all military co-operation with them. I would work for a Palestinian state organised on a federal basis so that Israeli workers did not feel as surrounded and oppressed as Palestinians have done for over 75 years. The land was stolen from Palestine and ought to be returned, but we have to recognise that Israel has a working class which has lived there for those 75 years, whether or not they supported the state’s aggression.

2. Of course they are. As are most of the western world.

3. Immediately!

4. I am not convinced we should spend anything on defence. Phase the department out and redeploy workers to socially useful jobs. That would take time, but should be the goal. The more de-militarised the world, the safer it would be. I always have supported unilateral nuclear disarmament for example.

5. See above. A federal Palestinian state with an Israeli part to it, but under the over all control of the elected Palestinian people, would be my view. We do have to accept that workers who have lived in Israel, 30% of whom are of Arabic background, have lived there for some 75 years and see the state of Israel as their homeland.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Yes, yes, and yes again!

2. Yes, politically, legally and militarily complicit.

3. Of course. Probably the very first action I would take!

4. (missing)

5. Whatever the Palestinian people want it to look like – this is a matter for Palestinians to determine and they have been extremely effective at advancing a free, sovereign and independent Palestine for decades and decades!

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Categorically yes to complete arms embargo and military cooperation.

2. The UK government is absolutely complicit – actively so.

3. Within a heartbeat.

4. I support the Welfare not Warfare campaign – at Unison’s conference last year we passed a motion to oppose any increase in military spending and to increase the amount on public spending. We need to be investing in our communities and our services.

5. Whatever the Palestinians want it to be. Self determination, justice and peace for the Palestinians.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

General Questions on policy

1. What are the key policies that you would like to see in the Your Party manifesto for the next general election?
2. Imagine Your Party has just won a general election, what’s the first action or policy you would work to implement?
3. What do you think our taxes should be spent on?
4. What should, or should not, pension funds be invested in?
5. What are your thoughts on mass surveillance? Mandatory ID might be on ice but what about future attempts to reintroduce it, and what do you think about live facial recognition?
6. What are your thoughts on full public ownership of vital public services?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Complete welfare reform, nationalisation, wealth tax.

2. A wealth tax and closure of tax loopholes.

3. Essential services like healthcare, education etc.

4. They shouldn’t be invested in industries that cause harm, eg, arms, fossil fuels, companies complicit in human rights abuses.

5. A stepping stone to authoritarianism, we have a right to privacy.

6. All for it!

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Public ownership of the economy under workers’ management and control, cutting political and economic relations with Israel, leaving NATO, repatriating the funds held in foreign tax havens under British jurisdiction, abolishing the Royal Family, House of Lords and all feudal relics, transferring all war production to socially-useful production, needs budgets in every local authority and public services renewed, all private capital out of our NHS, abolition of private education and private medicine.

2. Ensuring the tax haven funds are immediately repatriated.

3. Public services, infrastructure, civil service.

4. Should be spent on government bonds. So-called “ethical investments” are hard to find in an economy devoted to profit and once we have brought into public ownership most of the economy, we can support that. Pension funds need to be democratised. Cornwall Council swears blind its pension fund does not support the Zionist state; others state the opposite.

5. Nothing wrong with technology. The problem is that it’s in private hands. That has to change. Democratising the police and secret services (maybe getting rid of MI5 altogether) would help counter the drive towards mass surveillance.

6. As I’ve made clear above, I fully support this. In fact, it should be Your Party’s main selling point. It would be massively popular.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Nationalisation of key public infrastructure. An immediate campaign of social housing renewable energy construction accompanied by an energy price cap freeze. A wealth tax on billionaires.

2. Nationalisation

3. Public infrastructure and social care.

4. We should invest pension funds in ethical sectors such as public transport and renewable energies.

5. I reject the principles of mass surveillance and mandatory ID especially around voting. It is exclusionary and undemocratic.

6. It is essential.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. I think I’ve already answered a lot if what I’d like to see. I think the 2017 Corbyn Labour manifesto is a good starting point.

2.First actions in government? So much damage has been done we practically need to start over. But I’d say the cost of living crisis, part of which would be public ownership of utilities, then housing.

3. Pension funds to be invested ethically.

4. No to mass surveillance, mandatory ID and live facial recognition.

5. Yes to full public ownership of utilities.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Anti Austerity, Policy, a Wealth Tax, take back key services into public ownership, remove all privatisation in our NHS.

2. I would immediately suspend all diplomatic support of Israel, expel their ambassador and implement an arms and intelligence sanction.

3. Our Taxes should be spent on the UK and its Welfare Systems, then our Economy and Business, then outside relationships and support relief schemes.

4. Our pension funds should not be in high risk programmes, nor should they be invested in any country that has apartied, genocide, war, oppression activities .

5. I do not want mass surveillance or mandatory ID introduced. We already have systems in place for forces that work against our country without targeting ordinary citizens.

6. I want a full public ownership of vital public services

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. I have supported the Palestinian cause all my life but I am not a Palestinian. I am a Kashmiri and Kashmir is under occupation by India. I would like YOUR PARTY to stand with the Kashmiri peoples struggle for freedom just like we do for the freedom for Palestine.

2. Fully recognise Palestine and take those responsible for the genocide to stand trial.

3. Public services and public welfare. NHS, National Education System, Industry, Housing, Social services, More mental health services.

4. Any except companies that exploit workers or those that are complicit in activities that we do not agree with should be boycotted..

5. Totally against this Orwellian dystopian world where we lose all privacy and are suspects unless eliminated. We must stop this control freakery of our Govts plan to make us just a number rather than a human being with human rights. This kind of mass surveillance in its various forms is an attack on our freedoms and considers everyone a suspect until proved otherwise.

6. Not A good idea at all. I prefer a balance. Im all in favour of privatising industries such as Gas, Electric, Rail, Transport, Water, Steel etc but not my local burger shop and my local supermarket.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. The right to self-determination, in Palestine, Ireland, Venezuela and everywhere. Nationalisation of all public services and utilities, but under the democratic control of workers and consumers. Not the state, even a socialist one!! The state can co-ordinate. Promote an understanding of climate change and everything we should do to both prevent its progress, and provide financially, globally, for those who suffer from it. Opposition to all forms of bigotry and prejudice. Making “Welcome to asylum seekers” part of every platform. A massive increase in house building, especially social housing, for everyone including those who seek refugee status in our country. The adoption of an educational and promotional programme by any government to dispel the myths and lies about immigrants and asylum seekers, around the theme: “All are welcome.” The understanding that although social reforms can indeed be fought for and won under capitalism, the system needs to be overthrown before there will be fundamental socialist change.

2. A wealth tax to end poverty.

3. Improving social security benefits, restoring public services from years of labour, Lib Dem, Tory and Green implemented austerity, and improving NHS services.

4. Pension Funds should only be invested in sustainable and public service projects.

5. I don’t have a problem with mandatory ID. We are already fully known to the authorities!!

6. As I have already made clear, all public services should be fully and adequately funded under the control of consumers and workers.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. (missing)

2. The deproscription of Palestine Action, the explusion of all Israeli diplomats from the UK and the conversion of the former Israeli embassy into a refugee shelter. At the same time I would work on an immediate trade deal with Cuba, finding a way to provide Cuba with its immediate energy and food needs. Domestically in the first week, I would restore control over setting interest rates by the Bank of England to the government and impose capital controls to prevent capital flight. This would pave the way for the beginning of the economic restructuring.

3. I can tell you what I don’t think they should be spent on – the armed forces, subsidies for fossil fuel companies and the royal family. Fiscal policy should be set by democratic consensus as a result of policy formulation through the democratic processes of Your Party.

4. Pension funds, if they need to be invested, should be invested in the things that actually sustain life — public housing, renewable energy, local infrastructure, and worker‑owned enterprises — not in fossil fuels, arms manufacturers, or corporations built on exploitation.

5. I am completely against mass surveillance in any form.

6.The word vital here says it all – if they are vital (dictionary definition of vital =  absolutely necessary, essential, or indispensable for something to function or survive) then they are too important to be left to the vagaries and insecurities of the market. In any democratic society they belong to us, the wealth creators.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Those that are agreed and collated by our members – that is my understanding of why we will hold regular branch meetings and local assemblies, to ascertain where we place our energies and how we mobilise and identify work that is already taking place. I have my priorities and they are shaped by my own lived experience but whatever policies we choose they will I know be ones that will unite us and fight for social and climate justice.

2. That would not be for me to decide if I am speaking as a CEC candidate – that is for the members.

3. Whatever constitutes as investments in life and our planet.

4. As aforementioned I am working with others on the campaign for divestment from local government pension scheme – PSC leads on this work and Unison has a commitment to this. Pension funds should not be invested in weapons, companies complicit in genocide. Pension funds should not be invested into any companies that are contributing to the climate crisis. Pension funds should be invested into the future we want to see – in ways that fight our inequalities and position people before profit.

5. We have seen that mass surveillance is a violation of our human rights – those of privacy and freedom of speech and I am horrified by the possible consequences of mandatory ID – I have worked with some of the most vulnerable in our society – made vulnerable by our laws and systems, and the impact on that scheme going through would have devastating consequences for them. Live facial recognition is another violation of our privacy.

6. I am in support of full public ownership.

 

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YOUR PARTY RULES & MANAGEMENT

1. In your opinion, what would be the most effective and fair way for Your Party to decide on and write policy (i.e. proposed and written the by CEC, by branches, by individual members, or by Sortition Assembly, for example)?
2. What are your thoughts on how the CEC, and other Your Party structures, could be made to function more effectively and in the interests of its members?
3. Do you support dual membership and, if so, which other parties would you approve?
4. ⁠Will you ensure that ‘one member, one vote’ is enshrined into the party’s constitution?
5. Voters do not want to see discord in Your Party.  What processes would you want to see put in place to allow members to raise grievances, have them addressed fairly and expediently, and for lessons to be learnt?
6. Would you ensure the CEC provides members with a contact number and email so that members can contact you with suggestions and questions?
7. Taking cybersecurity concerns and obligations into consideration, at a time when there is serious concern  that member’s data could be hacked, leaving members exposed to harassment and other risks, what protections, other than those provided by cybersecurity tools, would you want to see put in place when sharing membership information with local branch executives?
8. How do you see Your Party operating in areas where people are fundamentally right wing and any kind of public street stalls can be very dangerous for those involved, and how should Your Party CEC and the party centrally support comrades in those areas?
9. Do you support the party investing, on a targeted and financially sustainable basis, in permanent and visible local spaces to enable branches to hold meetings, run public-facing events, and engage with citizens outside of election cycles? Please also explain why you support, or don’t support, this initiative.
10. Given the fact that politics is rife with self-serving careerists who priorities their own interests and the interests of their donors, over the interests of party members, and British voters, to the extent that they are prepared to lie their way into office and then break every promise they ever made, would you support a simple mechanism that allows party members to call an immediate vote of confidence in any Your Party elected official, including MPs, councillors and staff on the CEC (or other party structures)? Also, in the event that they lose that vote of confidence, that they are immediately removed from that office (ideally triggering a by-election in the case of MPs and Cllrs)

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. I’m very big on sortition, but I think in case of policy it should be down to members and branches.

2. I’m excited that it could bring about something new and fully participatory for people who may end up left behind by traditional politics.

3. Yes, I would approve all parties besides those that run candidates against us in an election, but I wouldn’t rule out an electoral alliance with the greens. I would rather see a YP/Green coalition than a Green/Labour one.

4. Yes!

5. I would want transparency in these procedures, written rationales on all decisions taken and action decided as an outcome of said grievance.

6. Yes!

7. A data officer responsible for keeping data secure, in an encrypted file, preferably passworded.

8. Deescalation training is essential. Offering support to those who are victims of the right wing. Perhaps doubling up on numbers so that the numbers of people on street stalls deters them.

9. Yes, it is vital that people see us operating in our communities.

10. Yes & Yes!

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Members, organised in branches and electing delegates to conference, should have the power to write policy. CEC should be subservient to conference and devoted to ensuring the smooth running of the party in between conferences.

2. We don’t yet know how CEC will function but with the proper democratic safeguards in place (outlined above) it will have a positive role.

3. Dual membership is nothing to be alarmed about. It’s a spectre invoked by those who would seek dictatorial powers. I am a proud member of the Socialist Party; the emergence of Your Party is what I have been working for and calling for for over 30 years. With a system of grassroots democracy in place, different factions can co-exist peacefully, concentrating on winning debates in order to advance their perspective.

4. The CEC election seeks to elect delegates from geographical areas. The party cannot function effectively without a system of delegates being in place. OMOV is superficially attractive but in reality places power in the hands of cliques as happened with Podemos in Spain, Five Star in Italy – and those parties betrayed their early promise. As long as delegates are accountable and recallable, there should be no problems with a delegate system

5. See above re party democracy and timely, open and transparent disciplinary process.

6. Depends on the ensuing workload. Suck it and see but in principle, I would agree.

7. Data protection is crucial but shouldn’t be used as an excuse to stifle debate. We have seen, in the party’s development to date, that information has been weaponised by factions and slowed the party’s development.

8. I have lots of experience of this. Stewarding is crucial. Sharing phone numbers and ensuring journeys home are safe. There is no such thing as a place where people are “fundamentally right wing”. There should be no no-go places for Your Party.

9. I support this. Depends on finances. We have to raise our profile.

10. Already addressed. Yes to both questions.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. Branch delegates and a percentage of sortitioned members should be able to raise and discuss motions with ample time before the next national conference to be voted on the conference floor. The vote should be open to all members with OMOV.

2. Simply with more transparency about who does what (including ALL volunteers) and their salaries.

3. In principle the Greens and any socialist-aligned party.

4. Yes!

5. Accessible, open communication for all members and total transparency around internal processes.

6. Yes!

7. Members would have to explicitly opt-in to having their details shared with local branch organisers, who would have to be identified to the party and sign a data protection agreement. They would only receive the details the member agreed to such as a phone number or email.

8. If campaigning in these sorts of areas then I would ensure the utilisation of private security if necessary and engage with local police for support. These sorts of campaigns are important and leafleting in these areas to point out the policies of Your Party that would lower the cost of living and improve the quality of life for people is essential.

9. In principle yes, but I would prefer to use existing spaces such as small businesses that might have conference space to support them financially and drive footfall to them, so long as political activity is something they are comfortable hosting.

10. In principle yes but it should be noted that a by-election is not triggered in circumstances such as an MP losing a party whip. There are very narrow circumstances for them so this might require some extra thought, but I absolutely support the right of recall.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Policy should be decided by all who want to participate. I would see the branches as the focal point, with individuals bringing ideas and expertise, branch discussions feeding into regional assemblies, revisions and amendments being made at these levels before reaching Conference. Time at conference could then be spent finessing because broad consensus should already have been reached.

2. Nutshell answer – communication and transparency. .

3. I personally didn’t support dual membership because I think it divides both focus and loyalty. However, I can also see that we need as wide a breadth of opinion and expertise as possible – plus it is what members decided, so we need to make it work. Bottom line as to which parties would be if they were also willing to reciprocate dual membership arrangements. I wouldn’t want to allow their members in if they didn’t!

4. Yes!

5. Robust and speedy complaints procedure followed by a session dealing with lessons learned and recommendations made.

6. Yes!.

7. Not an expert on the technical side but we need members data kept safe. Due diligence undertaken on branch executives.

8. We shouldn’t be cowed by the right wing but on a personal level our members don’t deserve to be intimated. So yes to additional support.

9. The idea of investing in local spaces is an interesting one and I’d certainly like to see it happen, if that is what the members decide. There would be a few practical issues (not least finance, plus insurance, safeguarding etc) but I like the concept.

10. Regarding votes of confidence etc yes, I support the concept of recall at all official levels. There is provision in the Constitution for this so the CEC needs to ensure the system is simple, robust, fair and effective!

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. Branches first to nominate policies.  Then The assemblies worked well, even though the structure was a bit loaded.  I think assemblies and discussions with a vote on policies go forward to CEC, and then Membership vote electronically like we did at conference.

2. Please remove all of the unelected “management team and influencers” we do not want a Labour Mark 2.  Wales, Scotland and Ireland need 2 representatives not 1. then they need their own regional CEC to collectively meet to move all processes and policies forward.

3. Dual membership. This is a difficult one.  I definitely don’t want dual membership for any parliamentary party to be able to join. but we have lots of left groups out there doing great work and I dont think they should be excluded.  We all need to be a force to be reckoned with.

4. I will ensure the will of the conference and the members for OMOV will be constitutionally upheld.

5. A well plain english grievance policy with fast and fair timelines, with face to face resolutions.

6. We most definitely need to have several contact numbers and an email address with real people behind those named, with publicly documented response times for members to raise grievances or questions with the CEC. I have advocated for a monthly podcast available on all of our platforms for all members to access giving them full details of activities that month. Including publicising minutes in full where possible. Communication is key because not every member of Your Party will want to be a member of a branch. We must keep them fully engaged, unable to participate to the levels they want to.

7. Data could’ve been shared as soon as the website went live in the members area. As a member myself, I ticked a box on my profile that said “do you want your profile to be visible to other Your Party member members” and I ticked yes? It operates in the same way as Facebook does and that would’ve got us around GDPR and enabled us members to have access to other members to build our movement. But we must take this issue seriously and we really must have the strictest levels of security in place from those that are highly skilled. And the person that the date was given to at branch must be held entirely responsible for its security with enormous ramifications if that’s not followed through on.

8. This is a great question for me. I live in a Tory and Reform dominated area.  It’s been Tory since 1986. And although we have a local labour branch, it’s never made any headways. I have been attacked repeatedly since last September online on social media. When I held our first Proto branch meeting in September and issued free tickets with a donation requested somebody selected all the tickets making the event look sold out so nobody could get in. My contact details were signed up to 3 porn websites and also Reforms head office 😂  just this week when I was advertising my election campaign my house was hacked and my telephone and Wi-Fi junction box on the front of my house was sabotaged. I know what I’m facing and so long as the CEC and the party make good on their promise that branches will receive a good proportion of the membership fees, we can arrange our own security at events. The one plus I have on my side is that I am well known and 90% liked in my area for my services that I have provided to my community in a charitable capacity for the last five years.

9. I wholeheartedly support the party investing on a financially sustainable basis in permanent visible local spaces to enable branches to hold meetings. Another part of the barriers I encountered was lots of places that rent their venue wouldn’t rent to a Your Party meeting. They definitely need to invest in public facing events and they need to absolutely engage with citizens outside of election cycles. We cannot turn up on the doorstep three weeks before an election and expect people to buy into what we’re trying to offer. We need to be running local community activities and campaigns so that people see us front and centre every day of the week.

10. I absolutely endorse a system where we can recall anybody from a working group, Cllrs. CEC or MPS to explain themselves if they have acted not in the best interest of the party or if they’ve broken any promises or if they have engaged in being influenced by donors. In fact, I would go further and say that we need to cap any money that can be given by donors including benefits and kind. Irrespective of whether this triggers a by election.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. Branches delegating to their reps on the CEC as well as Delegates agreeing on policies at conference.

2. Most influence at branch level fed up to the CEC. Local branches know best what their needs are. No two branches are ever the same so there has to be some consideration to this and the needs of each branch.

3. On the whole I do not support dual membership. I see it as political bigamy. You either have a sense of belonging and a sense of loyalty to one or none. You cant be 50% loyal to one and then 50% loyal to someone completely different. That’s no loyalty to one or the other. If you believe that YOUR PARTY is a party you can trust and help build, then lets put all our energy into it. No divided loyalties. In for a penny and in for a pound.

4. Yes!

5. Regular meetings in the community can give reps a very good idea as to the needs and aspirations of members. Members do not want to see discord and internal squabbling. Everyone must feel that they are an important and valuable member of the party. Their voices and opinions should be taken seriously and mechanisms and processes put into place in order to deal with issues in a fair and just manner learning from mistakes.

6. Yes!

7. (missing answer).

8. (missing answer).

9. It is only through regular contact with members of the public and having open and honest conversations that we can really learn and plan policy accordingly. This ensures that policies are informed by what is discussed in the public contact. People are very suspicious of politicians turning up at the door step every election time. Having those conversations away fro election periods will give the impression that we do really care what the public think.

10. Yes!

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Conference and any working groups or commissions that came out of it, to subsequently be reported back to the members and then debated and decided at the next conference.

2. No idea because they don’t exist at present.

3. I supported dual membership at conference and always will do. An important aspect of building a new mass based socialist party rooted in the working class is the inclusion of all socialist and left wing tendencies and parties who support YP, have policies aligned with ours, and want to work with us. As a member of the CEC, I would welcome all those based on those premises.

4. Not sure because although I agree with it in principle, I also favour a federal structure to encourage affiliations but I wouldn’t want all member of an affiliated organisation like a trade union of, say, 100,000 members, to have 100,000 votes.

5. Strict rules regarding Code of Conduct.

6. Yes!

7. Would need to research that in detail.

8. I have no knowledge at all about such areas if, indeed, they do exist.

9. Not sure I understand what was intended here.

10. Yes, definitely!

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. There is only one proper way to do this, through open and extensive policy group discussions at a branch level. This can then be translated into drafty policy by working groups for each area and put to conference for approval or amendment. .

2. Getting conference right is essential – we need a vibrant, active and rather lengthier conference which flows from working groups which prepare for conference in the preceding months.

3. My view is simple. Anyone should be able to belong to Your Party if they share the party’s core values and align themselves with its political statement. I don’t really understand why someone would want to belong to two parties (that’s a personal opinion) and I did vote against dual membership at conference in November but I have since changed my view and now support it as a principle.

4.  Yes, but this needs to be approved at conference.

5. We stop party discord by giving members real democratic power, not back‑room fixes. That means a transparent, independent grievance process with clear timelines, trained investigators, and outcomes that are published so lessons are actually learned. Unity should be a culture, not just a performance or slogan.

6. Yes of course!

7. This is a tricky one but I would say that we need to ensure that there are data‑minimisation rules, mandatory training for branch officers, clear accountability for misuse, and democratic oversight so members know exactly who can access what and why.

8. I think that we need to consider online outreach, community networks, door‑knocking in pairs, and events in safe, accessible spaces. Another good strategy is to build alliances with unions, anti‑racist groups, and local campaigns. The CEC and the central party must back comrades with training, legal support, rapid‑response safeguarding, and a clear commitment that no member is ever left to face intimidation alone.

9. This would depend on the resources available to us at that juncture in time. Ideally, yes, but other priorities may emerge.

10. Yes, I would support this.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. Is this sortition of members or sortition of our communities? I am absolutely here for sortition and I think a mix could work but I would love to explore that more with people who experiences on pulling assemblies together – perhaps like house of people. I am so interested in how we will implement assemblies within our practice and for me – if I am understanding our initial documentation, we would look to be ensuring the outcomes of those which will include both and members will shape our policy?  And then we could look at how that would be agreed – decided upon – I think this would be by members.

2. I’ve been thinking about this alot recently because at the moment (or how I am experiencing I should say) is that we are focusing on our regions for example and we are considering the individual but then the bigger picture thinking needs to consider how each individual will come together to work together and how will their skills be completing each other – what if the process we are using now leans more towards one skillset when we really need to think about all the different skills across the board we need to have in one team. And then in addition to repping, they will have named roles such as treasurer etc. The CEC could split into smaller groups so there is a recognised focus for each section, for example a focus on policy, a focus on inclusion, a focus on making the making process work (maximum member democracy) – whatever the structures look like, they need to be accessible, they need to be structures that enable any ordinary member to be a part of. We should be able to see ourselves in all roles.

3. I support dual membership and it is very clear how important this is to members – but this idea that the CEC approves the parties I don’t think is my expectation of what should happen – it should be decided by our members.

4. I feel sad that we need to ask this question but I totally understand why it is being asked – I feel so much of our time is being expended on my stance is what we vote for is what we work with, I do not have an agenda different to this.

5. I feel that most of the discord that we might be referring to is not from lack of alignment – it feels like it comes from not feeling valued, heard or having a direct communication or clarity in our processes. When we actually start working with and involving our members in a meaningful way we will learn exactly what needs to happen to ensure members are able to share their experiences and voices and how to address them.

6. I think as a party that is saying we want maximum member democracy I would want to see all manner of ways that members can get in touch and share their voices. In my role as social worker, when I am meeting with a child, one of the things we talk about is how best do they want to communicate, what are their preferences. We should be doing that with our members to understand how best do they want to get in touch, number, email, in person etc.

7. This is another answer where I say we benefit from talking to each other – for example in our proto-branch in Portsmouth we have incredible experience and part of that is past data officers – I would be looking to hear what they have to say on how we can best safeguard our member data.

8. Oh this is a very good question – I speak from experiences at having the far right here in Portsmouth attend anything remotely left leaning looking including our proto-branch meetings. For any of our actions that we are calling in our communities we have to risk assess, whether that’s for PSC, SUTR or Your Party. That’s how we have to manage it in the now and the landscape we are all  experiencing. We have to consider what is best for the people taking part and that sometimes looks like working collaboratively with the council and community safety and the police. I think also this is where we will benefit from our cross group work because it can be safer for us when we have bigger numbers. What we need from the CEC and from all our leading figures, decision makers etc outside of Your Party is to be really clear in their messaging that we don’t hate here. Our local authority for example says we need to take a neutral stance and that we should not bring politics into work – however it is my opinion that the silence is a message in itself. Neutrality suggests a fair balance and there is nothing fair or balanced about the oppression, violence and intimidation we see in our city. The CEC should be co creating safety plans and risk assessments with their members and getting a true understanding of how each area looks and how best to support.

9. If I understand this question correctly then it is a huge yes from me – it is what excites me the most about this party. I would love to see regular established assemblies that build our communities and its power, grow our voices and shape how we move. Imagine, for that to be an expected part of how we create change – that will be key to our foundations.

10. This party is so important to many people and we absolutely should have safeguards built into our practices that ensure those elected roles are accountable to their actions.

 

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GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. How would you distinguish democratic socialism from social democracy, do you identify with either, and, if so, why?
2. Should there be an electoral alliance with the Green Party?
3. Please sketch how you would fight an election campaign paying particular attention to the voting base you would attempt to mobilise, the messages you would try to get across, and the means you would employ to promote such messages.
4. Do you think we should keep the Monarchy?
5. Do you think it’s important for Your Party to have strong animal rights policies? If so, can you provide examples?

SIOBHAN OVEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 24-01-2026)

1. Social democracy works within capitalism using regulation and redistribution to reduce inequality, while democratic socialism goes further and extends democracy in to the economy itself through public ownership, worker control and strong unions. I identify with democratic socialism because I think that reform of capitalism is still capitalism and the systems within it are still hostile to the working class.

2. Yes!

3. Key policies we should be pushing should be welfare reform and wealth tax, but really focusing on empowering ordinary people, there are so many people who aren’t active voters right now and it’s essential we win them over. I think an electoral pact with the Greens is the only way we end up navigating the hostile FPTP system until we can install voters reform, which focuses on proportional representation instead of strategy. I would also like to see us collaborating with local activists on the ground, so along with our national messaging, we have local messaging for local people.

4. No.

5. Yes, I think that we should move away from systems that rely on cruelty, exploitation and environmental harm, including factory farming and practices that prioritise profit over welfare. We should also be protecting wildlife, habitats and biodiversity.

ROB ROONEY: Candidate for South West England (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I am a Marxist. Democratic socialism fits with the concept of Marxism. Social democracy is reformism – a retreat from a revolutionary perspective to accommodate careerists, the first fruit of which was capitulation by the Labour Party, SDP etc at the start of World War 1, followed by the TUC betrayal of the 1926 General Strike and culminating in what we see today – a Labour government cheering on a genocide. The history of the twentieth century is the history of the failure of social democracy.

2. No! Greens are cuts merchants. Their current leader has confirmed that. The talk about coalition with sell-outs demonstrates a lack of confidence in our ideas and should be resisted. Think about it. Your Party’s formation is a function of the distrust in the political class. Why would we get into bed with the very people whose betrayals have brought about that distrust?

3. Already answered. We need to mobilise our class, particularly young people.

4. Abolish. Take back their nine palaces and turn them into something useful. Jail the former Duke of York

5. I struggle with this. I hate the industrial methods used to kill animals but continue to eat meat. I would ban testing on animals for cosmetic production. I understand testing on animals for medical research is being phased out. This must continue to its conclusion. Nationalising the drug companies will help.

ALEX FOX: Candidate for West Midlands, UK (Answer submitted: 26-01-2026)

1. I am a Democratic Socialist because I believe capitalism is a blight. I want social ownership of our key industries and strong workers’ rights. Social Democrats wish to reform capitalism and I don’t support this approach as I believe capitalism cannot be reformed.

2. In principle yes so long as the Greens stand down in areas Your Party can win if Your Party reciprocates in kind.

3. The right wing have strong working class backing because our press system easily manipulates people and weaponises them against minorities. Appealing to these voters on common ground issues such as the cost of living is key to any election battle. Once there is a message that works to break down these initial walls, it might be possible to open up discussions around immigration and trans rights, but this is not guaranteed. We should be honest about the state of UK politics and be ready for a very long fight to gain seats in parliament.

4. No!

5. Yes. We should ban all blood sports such as “trail hunting” which is a weak mask for actual fox hunting. Additionally we should ban greyhound and horse racing as these are barbaric sports. The key is to ensure they aren’t forced underground. Giving more powers and funding to bodies such as the RSPCA would be key to making this happen.

JENNY CURTIS: Candidate for North West England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. For me, Democratic Socialism is a socialist economy which is agreed in a democratic way (ie not imposed), social democracy is capitalism agreed in a democratic way. I identify as a democratic socialist.

2. Too early to say! This is also not entirely up to us. I don’t see why we can’t work together on many issues, whether formally or informally. But we also need to forge our own unique identity.

3. The voting base I’d most like to engage are the disillusioned and the never engaged. A government holding 100% power on a 30% share of a 20% turnout is scarcely democracy in action.

4. We probably need a Head of State, but whether this is a monarchy or not is open to discussion. I don’t think there is yet a public appetite for this, so for the moment I’d rather concentrate on issues the public do seem to be asking for such as the abolition of the House of Lords and replacing it with a smaller, elected, second chamber.

5. If we chose to keep or to farm animals, we have a responsibility to care for them properly and ethically. Our laws on animal rights and protections are better than many, but certainly not perfect.

JUNE TOBIN: Candidate for East of England (Answer submitted: 28-01-2026)

1. I identify with Social democracy. I do not believe we should enforce things without the will of the people. But social democracy gives us other guarantees like a welfare state. It supports a balanced approach to the economy. That change comes by agreement and buying and not forced on us.

2. If our values and beliefs for the good of the country aligned with the Green Party, then we should absolutely consider an electoral alliance.

3. We should be fine an election campaign every day, not just in the months leading up to it. I like to call it community activism because if you’re doing this every day, it’s no longer a fight because the people see you and they see your actions and actions speak louder than words. We must use every means available to us to promote such messages TV radio press social media. But the biggest thing is being visible in your community and making small changes every day making peoples lives better or at least supporting them through the hard times that way when we come to knock on their doors they’re gonna remember you. ” you’re the lady that brought me a food parcel” “you’re the group that fought to get our buses reinstated” electoral campaigning is much easier when you do it every day.

4. We should definitely keep our monarchy. I don’t think we need to be like the French and guillotine them. But I do think they should pay for themselves. We don’t need to be supporting them to the financial level that we do. And all of their buildings and residences should have a place and  a time where they’re open to the public with funds going back into the government budget. I also think the Dutchie of Cornwall should stop earning millions out of that community. So yes, we should keep our monarchy, but they should pay for themselves.

5. We definitely need to have a stronger animal rights policy. To the way we farm animals slaughter animals feed animals treat animals and import them. E.g. Fox hunting that was banned should absolutely be enforced. Hair coursing should have far higher financial and legal ramifications. Mistreatment of pets should have far higher ramifications. The pesticides medication and food stuffs for animals should have a complete overhaul. Not only are we poisoning our animals but we are also poisoning our population through the food that they buy. We should respect our farmers more and have a Nationwide policy for homegrown food in the first instance. But obviously with imports for all of the wonderful foods from around the world that we like to enjoy. We need to be more responsible in how we treat other living beings on this planet. Including our wildlife forests open meadows, plants, rivers, and seas.

ARSHAD ALI: Candidate for Yorkshire and Humber region (Answer submitted: 05-02-2026)

1. I’m lean more towards Social Democracy.

2. No. There are too many differences between the two. YOUR PARTY is unique and needs to keep its own identity and not formally ally with any other party. This does not mean that we cannot at times work strategically with other like minded parties when it is crucial to do so in order to keep Reform OUT.

3. As someone who has been involved with political and social activism for most of my adult life, I fully understand that speaking to people face to face is the best way to persuade people into taking political and social action. Having public meetings and rallies can help get the message out and a call for action for engagement from those who would normally not take much interest in politics due to their loss of trust in all parties. I would engage with the public in as many ways as possible including social media, newsletters, public meetings, door knocking, delivering leaflets and creating posters both physical and digital. Most people are feeling disengaged from politics, it will be our job to help people build some trust and start re engaging. This can only occur if we are seen to be on the side of ordinary people and not on the side of those that have their own political aspirations. Most members of the working class public feel that their grievances are not addressed, we must change that and put people first.

4. NO. Time to abolish the monarchy. In this day and age we don’t need this outdated institution.

5. Of course. It goes without saying that animals should be protected and their welfare should be a concern for everyone. There should be legal consequences for maltreatment and cruelty towards all animals, especially in captivity and those animals that are taken as pets and then discarded like old boots.

PETE MCLAREN: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 09-02-2026)

1. Socialism involves the replacement of capitalism with socialism, whereas social democracy is the reform of capitalism in a more socially accept able way. I am a full blooded socialist because I do not believe we can have equality under capitalism.

2. Cooperation and possibly clash avoidance in certain circumstances, such as very low YP human resources – yes. And then only if entirely reciprocal. But nothing more than that as the Greens in practice are little different to Labour once in positions of power, always implementing austerity. The Green Party does not have a class position and is not socialist.

3. Any election campaign should be aimed at the working class, our class, putting across a strong socialist, anti-racist position with a clear explanation of why we oppose all form of oppression, bigotry and prejudice. This should be done by mass leafletting, canvassing and use of mainstream and social media.

4. Absolutely not. Republicanism is a key facet of socialism.

5. Yes I do. Make sure all hunting of animals, and anything akin to it, is permanently banned with stiff penalties and insist on world compassion in farming standards of animal welfare.

JOE HALL: Candidate for South West region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. I identify more with democratic socialism than with social democracy. Democratic socialism aims to build a socialist economy and society and doesn’t believe that capitalism can be reformed. Social democracy wants to keep capitalism and tweak it.

2. In my opinion, no, not a formal electoral alliance . I don’t think that the Green Party will ever be in a position to truly build socialism in this country. I would however support Your Party being selective in where to stand whilst resources and support are initially limited. Ultimately we should aim to stand in every seat, including Green seats.

3. A winning campaign starts by mobilising the people who’ve been written out of politics for decades — renters, young people, workers in precarious jobs, carers, and communities abandoned by austerity. The message has to be clear and consistent: we’re fighting for public ownership, secure jobs, affordable homes, and a society built around human need rather than corporate profit.

4.  No!

5. Absolutely! I think we should push to end factory farming, invest in plant-based innovation and research and enforce strict welfare standards in research, farming and entertainment.

STEPHANIE LEWIS: Candidate for South East region (Answer submitted: 12-02-2026)

1. My understanding of social democracy is that it is an ideology that sets out to reform capitalism. I identify with democratic socialism as I do not believe we can enact the change needed within capitalist structures – it would be an act of papering the cracks rather than pulling the harmful structures from the root which is what is needed.

2. My feeling with this is that we can’t approach this as a blanket response – there are many considerations and right now we are a very new party. That means not only are we still establishing ourselves and agreeing on what we stand for, not all of us are in positions to be standing candidates. We here in Portsmouth have the May elections and there is a real fear in the rise of Reform candidates. We have to consider what will keep out the far right and it is our locality that will understand best what our political landscape looks like. So I think that decision making needs to be done with the members and by each area.

3. This answer should be the default answer to all questions as to how we create within the party – understand your members, understand your communities, your localities and plan together – then you will know where your energy and focus needs to be.

4. I am not here for the Monarchy. I would not choose to keep them.

5. I’m a firm believer in animal rights – and it is my opinion that if you are standing against exploitation and for peace, we need to be giving equal consideration to all life. The recent work by the House of People created a people’s charter that spoke of a future generations act to put people and nature above profit.

 

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OTHER SOURCES:

Your Party Independents Bio pages

Your Party London CEC Hustings

Your Party South West CEC Hustings

Your Party Yorkshire & The Humber CEC Hustings

Your Party South East CEC Hustings

Your Party East of England CEC Hustings

Your Party Wales CEC Hustings

Your Party West Midlands CEC Hustings

Your Party East Midlands CEC Hustings

Your Party North West Hustings 

Your Party North East CEC Hustings