COMMUNIST candidate Rob Griffiths has vowed to evoke the spirit of Keir Hardie if elected, calling for a return to true Labour values to benefit the working class.

Mr Griffiths, speaking at a rally in Merthyr Tydfil on Monday evening, pledged to back an Ed Miliband government — but at a price.

Mr Griffiths detailed the honourable history of Merthyr Tydfil’s labour movement from the Chartists to Labour MPs Keir Hardie and SO Davies and historian Gwyn Alf Williams.

He said he “identified with the real Keir Hardie — not the kindly old uncle full of sweetness and light of modern portrayal but the firebrand who opposed the ruling class root and branch, including the monarchy.”

George Galloway, who seeks re-election for Respect in Bradford West, attended the rally to speak in favour of Mr Griffiths.

He said: “I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party, but I didn’t disagree with a single word that Rob Griffiths said in his opening address.”

“My price is a return to real Labour values and real Labour policies,” he declared.

Mr Griffiths slated Labour’s obsession with spending £100 billion on a replacement for Trident nuclear submarines.

“Can there ever be any justification for mass murder of civilians? Of course there can’t,” he said.

He pledged tax rises for the rich and big business, public ownership of key sectors of the economy and a real parliament for Wales in a federal Britain.