Introducing Pete McLaren CEC Candidate for South East

ABOUT PETE: I am originally from the South East, born in London, and brought up in Tonbridge, Kent. I moved to Coventry and taught in inner-city Comprehensives. I am a proud family person, married over 50 years, with three children and seven grandchildren. We moved to Rye when we both retired. I am an independent socialist and not a member of any faction. However, I don’t oppose factions or sections and have called for a second preference vote for the Grassroots Left. I have set up an informal YP group in Rye, and attend Hastings & Rye proto-branch meetings. As part of being an activist, I oppose all forms of oppression and prejudice. I am excited about Your Party’s potential. I have been working with others to build a new mass socialist party since expulsion from Labour for supporting Dave Nellist and John Hughes as Independent Labour MPs in 1992. I believe Your Party could be that party. I had been a Labour Party ward secretary, Constituency and District Party Officer. Those 30+ years helping to build unity across the left in the Socialist Alliance, Left Unity Liaison Committee, Left Unity and now TUSC have taught me a lot about forging links between different parts of the left, and combining independent socialists within that. That could be vital when mediating between factions on the CEC. I represent independent socialists on the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national Steering Committee and regularly stood in general/council elections, welcoming asylum seekers and opposing austerity in all election publicity. I supported TUSC’s role in Collective, the loose organisation set up to discuss a possible new left party, consulted by Jeremy Corybn and Zarah Sultana. Out of these discussions, Your Party emerged. TUSC is enabling other Your Party comrades to contest elections using one of its nine registered electoral titles as Your Party dithers. It will do the same for the May council elections. This is despite the fact that three of our members, part of TUSC through the SP, were amongst those who received a letter barring them from standing in the CEC elections. Including our Chair, former Labour MP Dave Nellist! Now, 24 hours after voting commenced, CEC candidate Rob Rooney, active socialist and many times TUSC election candidate, barred and expelled. Disgraceful. If elected, I will fight for conference decisions to be fully implemented, both as agreed and in spirit, and a stop to bans and proscriptions. For branches to have autonomy + be able to elect delegates, and be funded to ensure accessibility. Branches to be set up by 10% of local members, not double that, and the full rights of individual members to determine policy. Dual membership should be defined to enable all socialist organisations to become part of Your Party. Affiliation of trade unions, tenants/community groups, socialist organisations, LGBTQ and trans rights groups must be encouraged. Trade Unions should be at the heart of building our new party. Your Party MPs should live on a worker’s wage. We should stand widely in elections to promote no-cuts budgets, using Councils’ prudential borrowing powers/reserves, whilst building a mass campaign demanding the Government funds essential services.

PETE ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS….

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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)

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!

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?

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.

YOUR PARTY SOUTH EAST HUSTINGS (8th February 2026)….

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey, why not BUY ME A COFFEE if you appreciate this post, or, better still, take out a MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION and support our work. Even if you can only commit to £1 a month, it all helps folks!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________