Foundation and early activities The Workers Party of Britain was founded in response to the
Labour Party's landslide defeat at the
2019 general election and the resignation of
Jeremy Corbyn as
Leader of the Labour Party. The founding of the Workers Party of Britain was welcomed by the
Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) (CPGB-ML). Joti Brar, a vice-chair of the CPGB-ML, was elected as the Workers Party of Britain's deputy leader at its founding congress. Burrows came last out of six, gaining 22 votes (0.9%). In the
2021 local elections, the party stood more than 40 candidates for local elections in England.
Batley and Spen by-election The WPB contested its first parliamentary seat at the
2021 Batley and Spen by-election, with Galloway as its candidate. Galloway concentrated on the issues of the
Palestinian territories, the
Kashmir conflict, criticism of Labour leader
Keir Starmer, the suspension of a teacher for showing a cartoon of
Muhammad at
Batley Grammar School, and the reopening of a police station in
Batley. The campaign received considerable media attention due to incidents of harassment during its final days. The
Jewish Labour Movement called the result a "triumph for hope and decency" over Galloway's "toxic politics". Galloway vowed to challenge the result on the basis of an alleged "false statement" made about him by Leadbeater and Starmer, which he said tipped the result of the by-election. The party
contested the
Almond ward of
Edinburgh Council in the
2022 Scottish local elections, and came second to last with 61 first-preference votes (0.4%). In the
2022 local elections, Workers Party candidate Ed Woollard achieved 15% of the vote in the
Bordesley and Highgate ward of
Birmingham. In 2023, the former Labour MP
Chris Williamson joined the party. At the party's Congress in December 2023, Galloway was re-elected party leader. Three deputy leaders were elected: Chris Williamson, Andy Hudd (Vice President of the
Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen), and
Peter Ford (former Ambassador to
Bahrain and
Syria).
2024 Rochdale by-election and local elections Rochdale by-election On 29 February 2024, Galloway won the
2024 Rochdale by-election following the disendorsement of the Labour candidate in a traditionally safe Labour seat. The
Gaza war dominated the campaign. In his election speech, Galloway said: "Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. You will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied
Palestine, in the
Gaza Strip." Galloway won almost 40% of the vote and overturned a previous Labour majority of 9,668, achieved by former MP
Tony Lloyd, whose death had precipitated the by-election. Turnout at 39.7% was much lower than the 60.1% for the 2019 general election. Labour had withdrawn support for its candidate when it became known he had suggested that Israel was complicit in the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Following the by-election, it was announced that the Workers Party had 59
prospective parliamentary candidates for the
2024 UK general election.
2024 local elections In March 2024, the party gained its first councillor when the former mayor of
Hounslow, Amritpal Mann, defected to the Workers Party. At the
2024 local elections, the party stood 33 candidates for councillor positions. Four of them were elected, including two in the
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale (where they received 13% of the overall vote with Labour receiving 42% and the Conservatives 19%) and one in
Calderdale. Shahbaz Sarwar, their candidate in
Longsight Ward,
Manchester, unseated deputy leader of City Council
Luthfur Rahman, with 2,444 votes to Labour’s 2,259. The WPB endorsed
independent candidate for the
Mayor of the West Midlands, Akhmed Yakoob, came third with 69,621 votes (11.7%). Yakoob announced his intention to stand in the 2024 general election at
Birmingham Ladywood. He is again endorsed by the WPB. The party's
mayoral candidate in
Lewisham, John Hamilton, distributed a flyer saying "Starmer’s Labour Party is falling apart. Any criticism of Israel is labelled antisemitic. He is their puppet". He posed with a placard that depicted a
swastika above a Jewish
Star of David. He came fifth, with 5.7% of the vote.
2024 general election On 30 April 2024, Galloway announced that he had 500 candidates ready and that the party would stand in every seat at the
2024 general election. Among the candidates were announced were former cricketer
Monty Panesar, along with defectors from
UKIP and Labour. and that it would support a small number of independent left candidates, including
Claudia Webbe in
Leicester East and
Jeremy Corbyn in
Islington North. Former
Labour MP and WPB deputy leader Chris Williamson stood in
Derby South. In April 2024, it was reported that the WPB candidate in
Brentford and Isleworth,
Nisar Malik, a former mayor of Hounslow, posted a video in which
David Duke, a former "grand wizard" of the
Ku Klux Klan, expressed antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the media and the global financial system. The party launched its official campaign on 1 June, with Galloway declaring Labour leader
Keir Starmer was "indistinguishable" from
Rishi Sunak and had "blood on his hands" over his position on Gaza. Its 34 page manifesto, which was published in June, included policies to increase the
personal allowance, consider
nationalising some public services including rail, water, electricity and the “
military-industrial complex”, oppose
ULEZ and "
green hysteria", regulate "
Big Food" and "
Big Pharma", end “creeping buro-fascism” and "cultural engineering" and instead support free speech, recognise working class "anxiety" about mass immigration, end "imperialist wars", support Palestine, withdraw from
NATO, consider dropping the retirement age to 60, introduce non-means tested free school lunches and remove the
UK nuclear deterrent. Later in June, a number of Workers Party activists and prospective candidates were accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories involving
Jewish control. In total, more than a tenth of people running for the party had their content flagged online for accused antisemitism. It was reported that Kamran Khan, the WPB candidate in
Poplar and Limehouse, "claimed America is controlled by a 'Jewish mafia' and implied that anyone who learnt about Jewish history would become a Nazi." Khan was also accused of mocking
Holocaust Remembrance Day by sharing a post on Twitter that said the date represented a "galactic load of victimhood". At the same time, the candidate in
Finchley and Golders Green, Mez Derak, shared an article that called the Jewish festival
Passover "a sick and twisted holiday.” It was also reported that the Chesterfield candidate, Julie Lowe, had disputed that 6 million Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust. The WPB won no seats but did garner 210,194 votes across the country.
George Galloway came in second place to Labour Party candidate and journalist
Paul Waugh in Rochdale. Waugh received 13,027 votes, equivalent to 32.8% of the vote, while Galloway received 11,587 votes, equivalent to 29.2% of the vote.
Craig Murray, who stood in
Blackburn for the party, finished in third place behind independent candidate
Adnan Hussain and incumbent Labour MP
Kate Hollern. The Workers Party came within a small number of votes of defeating some high profile Labour MPs with large swings. Jody McIntyre came in second place in
Birmingham Yardley, 693 votes short of unseating Labour's
Jess Phillips.
James Giles won just 1,566 fewer votes than
Liam Byrne in
Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North. ==Ideology and platform==