Our 2026 local election campaign in London
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This year there are elections in all the London Boroughs. We will be standing candidates in Lambeth and Islington. Election day is Thursday 7 May and the campaign will be in April. London branch is planning a pre-election campaign from this month announcing that we will be standing.
The leaflets arrived last Friday and a few have already been handed out already. More will be up to the end of March.
Three branch members leafletted a meeting in Brixton (in one of the wards we are contesting) of an organisation called “Vote Palestine 2026”. Near the time when the meeting was due to start we are asked by one of the organisers to stop leafletting as, she said, all other parties which might be contesting had agreed not to. Not wanting to create an incident with Palestine Solidarity Campaign we stopped and went into the meeting.
We wished we hadn’t agreed to stop leafletting as it turned out that, although the PSC agreed with “Vote Palestine”, they weren’t the organisers themselves. Under the “Vote Palestine” plan candidates are to be asked to sign a pledge to support “self-determination for Palestine” and, in particular, to get the council not to invest its pension fund in companies helping Israel. “Vote Palestine” would then campaign for those who signed the pledge and against those who didn’t. The basic aim seemed to be to kick the ruling Labour Party in Lambeth out of office. According to their leaflet:
“Lambeth Council continues to funnel our pension funds into the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, Lambeth public services are chronically underfunded. This May 2026 election, we’re voting in councillors that invest in Lambeth instead of investing in genocide!”
This is either confused or populist demagoguery. The money in question is that paid by the council as employer and by its employees into a fund to provide pensions for them. While the council could decide not to invest in firms helping Israel they cannot use the money to fund council services. If they did, the council’s employees would be up in arms protesting about money set aside for their pensions being used for some other purpose. This would be unlawful anyway and any candidate promising this, or accepting support from people who are, will not be able to do this.
One of the speakers at the meeting was Andrew Feinstein, the former ANC MP in South Africa, who stood against Starmer at the last election and who has been involved in setting up the Your Party. He revealed that in Camden, the Camden Peoples Alliance and the Greens had reached an electoral agreement not to oppose each other, but, in multi-councillors wards (as all wards are in London boroughs), for example in two-councillor wards, to each put up one candidate in the expectation that supporters of both parties would cast one of their votes for each of them.
The Greens in Lambeth will probably make a similar deal with YP supporters here who are calling themselves the “Lambeth Independent Socialists”. The situation in Lambeth is complicated by another group of anti-Labour “independents” organised by Roger Hallam, of Just Stop Oil notoriety, seeking to stand candidates. The Greens may do a deal with them too. They certainly want to do a deal with the Greens.
Local media report on the meeting:
Jewish Voices drop Labour as anti-apartheid veteran backs Lambeth tactical voting
The person next to Andrew Feinstein is Ruby Bukhari who is standing a candidate for Roger Hallam’s group of “independents” calling itself “Shake It Up”. Which may be a clue as to who might be behind “Vote Palestine 2026”.
Presumably the coalition will also be campaigning to ensure that the Local Authority Pension Schemes also refrain from investing in non ethical funds. So perhaps that includes anything associated with the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund, anything associated with the Arms Industry, the South American meat production industry which is destroying the rain forest, cocoa production (heavily implicated in child and slave labour), Social Media industry that are involved in child sexual exploitation, big Pharm, mining companies involved in mining for rare earth currently destroying and polluting huge tracts of land, agricultural conglomerates that are buying up and destroying countless ecosystems, Amazon and similar on line sales companies that are creating environmental destruction on an incredible scale, the garment industry which is polluting rivers amd killing workers across the world, shipping companies that pollute our rivers and seas, fishing conglomerates that are taping the natural environment for the profit of the few. Maybe they can even try to use the Local Authority pension scheme to persuade Elon Musk and his cronies to stop using massive amounts of the earth’s resources so that him and his buddies can have a little trip into outer space
Perhaps they can move all of the pension fund monies into ethical investments, bloody good luck with that!
Apparently we should listen to these clowns. We should understand that our problem is that we are too unrealistic, we should recognise that they are the practical people, and sadly we’re the dreamers. We have to invest our energy in small steps, short term goals.
We should concentrate on the symptoms not the cause. We should be realists. Capitalism can be ethical, politicians can be principled, billionaires can use their wealth for the greater good, unicorns can run playfully on lush meadows, rainbows actually do have pots of gold at their end, Newcastle United can win the Premier league and Mayo certainly can win the All Ireland Football Championship.
As if
Here is our candidates comment on the Brixton Buzz report of that meeting:
“As the Socialist Party candidate for Brixton North, I was at this meeting. It’s ironic that while the night was billed as “breaking free” from party political shackles, our members were banned from leafleting those going in. Apparently, “freedom” only extends to those willing to play the tactical voting game.
While Brixton Buzz readers might see the photo of Ruby from Shake It Up with Andrew Feinstein as a sign of radical change, we see it as more of the same. Groups like Shake It Up and Roger Hallam aren’t offering a way out—they are just another attempt to manage capitalism instead of getting rid of it.
On Palestine: We reject nationalist solutions. Our position on Israel-Palestine is based on class solidarity, not supporting one state over another. We want a world without borders, not new ones.
The Alternative: We aren’t interested in “shaking up” a failing system or “tactical” deals with reformists. We advocate for common ownership and a world without the wages system, money, or states.
If you’re tired of “poxy party political games” and want a genuine socialist alternative that doesn’t silence dissenting voices at its own front door, come and find the Socialist Party (GB)
YFS Ana Krycek for Brixton North”.In the meantime pre-election leafletting has begin in the other ward we will be contesting in Lambeth, Clapham Common & Abbeville.
The ward we are standing in Islington — Junction Ward — is the same one we contested in a council by-election in November 2024. At that time the Corbynite candidate was Jackson Caines who came second. He has since defected to the Greens.
In the meantime the Corbynites have registered with the Electoral Commission as a political party as the Islington Community Independents. Presumably they will do a deal with the Greens. But it remains to be seen if Jackson Caines will be among opponents again.
https://islingtonindependents.org/f/ici-registered-as-a-political-party
This name contrasts with their equivalents in Lambeth who are registering as the Lambeth Independent Socialists.
Members were out yesterday, outside the tube station and putting leaflets through letter boxes. Also there was Roger Hallam, ex-Just Stop Oil, himself, leafletting for “Shake it up” who are standing “independent” candidates. They may be standing in the two wards we are contesting (Brixton North and Clapham Common).
More on them here: http://www.shakeitup.org.uk
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