YOUR PARTY published its strategy to target Labour strongholds in the upcoming local elections today, by supporting independent and community parties to push back against both the governing party and Reform UK. 

The party said it hoped to see constituencies which have historically constituted Labour’s core supporters move towards left-wing alternatives, highlighting Labour’s under-investment and complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. 

Rather than standing candidates in every constituency, the new socialist party will support 250 candidates across England, most running as independents or for allied local community parties.

Your Party parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn shared the roadmap for the May elections, which includes stressing the need for public investment and in-sourcing of services.

The positive message, of investing to deal with the destructive effects of local government austerity, will attempt to disarm Reform UK candidates’ “snake oil” proposals.

The policy slate will also focus on Labour’s failures surrounding social care and inadequate local services and push for divestment from Israeli apartheid in councils.

Mr Corbyn said: “These elections are the beginning of the fightback against austerity, privatisation and fear.

“All across the country, there will be community independent groups offering an alternative to the despair of Labour and the division of Reform.

“We are proud to support those candidates and groups standing up for redistribution, inclusion and peace.”

The former Labour leader added: “People in power underestimate the power of people at their peril – and arrogance in office always comes back to bite you in the end.”

Key groups for Your Party’s effort to push back Reform and Labour include Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire in Tower Hamlets and the Newham Independents Party.

Other targeted areas include constituencies where Labour has seen promising or successful challenges in recent years and where Labour has been declining, such as in Bradford, Birmingham and the West Midlands.

In what Your Party called the “beacon council” of Tower Hamlets, executive mayor Mr Rahman said: “Labour imposed some of the most severe austerity in the country when they ran Tower Hamlets Council, further impoverishing one of Britain’s most deprived areas.

“In Tower Hamlets, we’ve shown how socialist, redistributive policies can transform lives and provide the hopeful, ambitious alternative needed to take on the far right – something Labour has utterly failed to do.”