WELSH Communists launched their general election campaign in two seats in the south Wales valleys today.

Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths is contesting the Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney seat once represented by left-wing Labour MPs Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot. 

[[{"fid":"66428","view_mode":"inlineleft","fields":{"format":"inlineleft","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Robert Griffiths","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineleft","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Robert Griffiths","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"Robert Griffiths","class":"media-element file-inlineleft","data-delta":"1"}}]]Mr Griffiths said at his campaign launch in Abertillery: “The Labour Party under Keir Starmer has abandoned working-class communities with its rapid shift to the right.”

He accused the Labour leader of breaking pledges to tax bankers' bonuses and the super-rich, renationalise the utilities, lift the two-child benefit cap and bring in a £28 billion green prosperity plan.

Former Labour council leaders Bernard Assinder and Hedley McCarthy have signed Mr Griffiths’s nomination papers. 

Mr Assinder said: “We need a fighter for working-class communities and their young people, not a pretend voice for change, a Starmer poodle, that’s why I'm backing Rob.”

Welsh Communist candidate for Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare Bob Davenport will be at a hustings tonight at 7pm in The Scala, John Street, Merthyr Tydfil.