Sheffield City Council elections: Socialist ex-MP and pro-Palestine candidate speak at TUSC coalition meeting

Sheffield general election candidates for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Mick Suter and Isabelle France. Isabelle is speaking at a TUSC meeting ahead of the May 2 council elections. Picture: TUSC

The former Militant Labour MP Dave Nellist will be speaking at the Central United Reformed Church, Norfolk Street, Sheffield city centre tonight (May 1) at 7pm.

Dave Nellist was a member of Militant and a left-wing Labour MP from 1983 to 1992. He refused to pay his poll tax and was expelled from the Labour Party for being in Militant.

He was then elected as a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry for 13 years and now sits as the national chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, who are standing candidates in the Sheffield City Council elections tomorrow, May 2.

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TUSC said it was established to offer an anti-austerity socialist alternative at the ballot box in opposition to all the establishment parties, including Keir Starmer’s Labour who are now just “not very red Tories”.

Dave will be offering his support to TUSC’s 27 council election candidates in Sheffield who are attempting to build on the nearly 3,000 votes they received at last year’s local elections.

Independent

Also speaking will be Qais Al-Ahdal, who is standing as a pro-Palestine Independent candidate in Darnall ward whom TUSC is supporting; Isabelle France, TUSC candidate in Walkley ward and candidate for Sheffield Central in the general election; and Marion Lloyd, standing for president of the PCS civil servants union.

A spokesman for TUSC said: “They will explain why TUSC opposes the Labour/Lib-Dem/Green Party council coalition carrying out Tory government cuts.

“TUSC wants the Tory government out but thinks that Starmer’s Labour no longer represents ordinary working-class people and the Greens have now joined the establishment in Sheffield. TUSC is opposed to all cuts and privatisation and champions a socialist alternative to all the mainstream parties.”

If elected, TUSC candidates will oppose cuts to services and council tax rises and support bringing buses as well as trams back into public control. They also argue to cut fares and restore services to encourage the use of public transport in order to reduce air pollution.