Transform Newsletter 13th August 2025

 13th August 2025

Welcome to issue 28 of the Transform Newsletter. Just when you thought that the Labour Party couldn’t sink any lower: the Minister for Homelessness has had to resign after it emerged that she personally forced people from their home in order to make a quick buck.

Roadmap to a new party

At the moment it all feels a little strange. We’ve signed up to a “not quite” party, with no name, no formalised policies, and no subs paying membership. All we know is that there’ll be a Founding Conference later in the year, at which some of this will start to fall into place. But should we see this as a handicap, or as an opportunity ?

The upside is that it gives us time to think about what we’re aiming to do, what our priorities are – and to give thousands of people from all corners of our movement opportunities to engage in this process.

Our core message

Alongside all the debates around party name, there’s another equally important issue up for discussion: what’s our core message ?

How important is it to declare that we’re socialist ? Do we emphasize values instead, such as social justice, equality and peace ? Or do we style ourselves as a democratic movement, a community voice, a champion of the people ?

Some have suggested reclaiming the slogan ‘For the Many’. It would be a mistake though to create the impression that all we’re about is becoming Corbyn Project 2.0. What’s taking shape now is a different kind of movement, not rooted in any existing party structures, immersed in local campaigns, developing in ways that are quite organic. So why not be bold. Why not try and capture this in our branding. Say that we are for a new kind of democracy, a new people’s movement, that gives power to the powerless.

Our constitution

Our party is a coalition of individuals, groups and organisations who will come with their own ways of doing things, their own expectations, their own agendas. Inevitably there will be tensions. We need a bespoke constitution: one that helps us all to bind together in a single unit.

For instance, a desirable goal might be to make all party bodies as representative as possible – but how do you get there ? STV voting would help, but behind that, a commitment to representative democracy has to be at the core of the party, so that party units are always encouraged to select a fair share of delegates who have no political background, who are younger, who are from disadvantaged minorities, etc.

With elections for party officers, there may be a bias toward people who are well known or who come from particular political groupings. A good corrective would be to follow the practice of Transform, whereby elected officers build up teams of volunteers who they consult with regularly.

The relationship between the national party and local party units will need to be carefully calibrated.

Displaying the party name and party branding will carry with it certain expectations. To take the most obvious example, if the local branch selects a candidate for public office who publicly disagrees with major planks in the national manifesto, this would obviously be a problem.

The national party will also be providing strategic direction. This though is likely to be very different from the kind of centralised bureaucratic operation that anyone who’s been involved with the Labour Party will  be familiar with. In addition to selecting  their own candidates, local branches may for instance find themselves being given freedom to decide on campaigning priorities, on the contents of any candidate contracts, on what seats to contest, and even on whom they can do deals with.

Evolution of local party units

Many left independent bodies were established during the lead-up to the 2024 General Election. Several of them have been represented in the new party discussions over the last 12 months. They all stood candidates in the General Election, some of them have sitting councillors. In places like London where local elections are to be held in 2026, most have already selected or are in the process of selecting candidates. In these cases, it seems highly likely that Your Party will either adopt the candidates under its own banner, or endorse them where they end up standing under another banner. Most of the groups have already indicated their intention to merge into the new party, and they’re not expecting to be part of any federal structure in the future.

Launch meeting of Camden People’s Alliance, 20 July 2025

We now also have a lot of very recently formed local groups of Your Party supporters. Some are as yet embryonic, and may exist only as WhatsApp groups or Facebook pages, but a good number are moving quickly to calling public meetings and putting some elements of organisation in place.

What we’re seeing is people mobilising themselves in a spontaneous way. No one on the ground has any access to Your Party data, as the necessary Party structures don’t yet exist. The party though isn’t just two MPs, it’s all of us, ordinary people hungry for political change. And what better way to show that than by organising and building support on the ground. There’s also an awareness that the clock is ticking: a Farage government is a real threat, and the sooner we start building a left alternative and challenging right wing narratives the better.

When setting up local groups, it’s important to make them as representative as possible. All interested political organisations, community groups, active trade unionists etc should be invited. And no one grouping should seek to exert control to the exclusion of others. Above all, a spirit of cooperation is required.

Want to set up a group in your area, but in need of assistance in getting started ? Look no further. Our Community Action Group project has supported the creation of groups in several areas.

Our audience

Our first task as we comingle with others on the Left is to talk to one another, looking for points of connection rather than rehashing historic differences, being open to alternative ways of working.

We also have to turn our sights to the bigger picture. The pool of people who may be receptive to our ideas is very large. It includes trade unionists, it includes young people saddled with debts and low-paid jobs, it includes millions of former Labour voters who no longer feel that they have a political home.

This will be our greatest challenge in the years ahead, greater even than rebutting the media lies: showing the low-paid, the downtrodden and the oppressed that we are on their side, that we understand their concerns, that their fight is our fight, and that we can be trusted to speak on their behalf.

Who should be allowed to join ?

We hear from a few local groups that there are people who they wouldn’t like to be involved, perhaps because of disruptive behaviour, or because in the past they’ve collaborated with Labour right wingers. There’ve also been pro-trans voices wanting to know whether transphobes will be allowed in the new party.

Until a constitution is in place, there is no restriction on who can be a member and who can hold office. The constitution won’t exclude people on the basis of their beliefs: no political party can do that. What it can do is to prohibit behaviours and actions that harm other people or damage the party’s good reputation.

More important than any constitution is to build an inclusive culture throughout the Party. We should all be creating welcoming spaces; refusing to tolerate uncomradely behaviour such as sexual harassment or deliberate misgendering; and getting our local party units to embed in candidate contracts commitments to respect and trans inclusion.

Our policies

For some people, it’s frustrating to learn that Your Party has no policies on the issues closest to their heart. Indeed, as yet Your Party has no policies at all.

You have two choices. You can wait for policies to be published, and hope that every little box on your list has been ticked. Or, you can sign up today, become a part of this mighty, historic movement, talk to others in your local group about your ideas, and about using leaflets, social media and public events to win hearts and minds. And then have your say and cast your vote at the Founding Conference for the issues that you believe in.

A story of two demonstrations

We’re seeing actual fascists and far right thugs taking to our streets, trying to whip up support from residents who live near migrant hotels under the slogan ‘Save our kids’.

UKIP leader Nick Tenconi was at one of these ‘protests’ in Portsmouth at the weekend, where he appeared to make a Nazi salute. Police looked on: this to them was free speech.

Meanwhile, hundreds had gathered in Parliament Square to protest against the government’s decision to proscribe a non-violent protest group. You know the rest: 522 people arrested under anti-terrorism legislation, 50% of whom were aged 60 or over.

This is making the Met into a laughing stock. What purpose are these arrests intended to serve ? The authorities are already on notice that there will be further protests against the proscription. How much more valuable police resources are going to be needlessly used up in further waves of mass arrests ?

Those who’ve chosen to hold up placards haven’t made that decision lightly. All were aware of the risk to themselves, not just of being arrested, but of facing a significant prison term.

Of those arrested in previous weeks, only three have been charged so far. The remainder are anxious waiting to hear their fate. One of these is Audrey White, Secretary of the Merseyside Pensioners Association, who was arrested in Liverpool on July 20th. On August 4th, she issued an update to supporters:

“ I think the manner of my arrest, the violence of it, the humiliation of it, the very public display of massive power against an old woman by so many officers was part of this tactic. Please don’t let it intimidate you or stop you from taking action.

Thanks to those of you who sent the massive number of videos of my arrest, they will be very useful in helping in a number of legal actions I will be involved in. I would like to add these videos, taken from every angle possible, clearly exposes the actions of the police and shows that my behaviour was calm and did not merit their response in any way.”

Her bail conditions effectively placed her under house arrest:

“My bail conditions are ;

I cannot attend any demonstration in support of Palestine Action.

I cannot enter Liverpool City Centre. ( the city centre is defined in the bail map).

I must live at my home address.

It was made very clear that I will be arrested if I break the bail conditions even arrested if I call into a shop if I go to a hospital or doctors appointment .

The conditions become seriously prohibitive and draconian for me because I really do live within the city centre, within the boundaries defined on their map. This of course means I shouldn’t really be living in my own home except the bail conditions say I must.

No matter how many times me and my husband said and indicated where we lived, the two police officers insisted we lived somewhere else. They went away for a while to check, came back and assured us we didn’t live within the restricted area and insisted we lived somewhere off the map. It was kafkaesque.”

The bail conditions have now been eased to allow her to leave the house, but still don’t permit her to lead a normal life.

Report: Haringey

The Haringey Socialist Alliance (HSA) arose from discussions several months ago between Haringey & Tottenham for Palestine (under whose name Nandita Lal ran against David Lammy in the General Election), local Independent Socialist Councillors and two Turkish community organisations (GIK-DER & DAY-MER). An organising committee was formed and has met 4 times. We are aiming for a launch public assembly on 27th September. It is hoped that at that assembly people who have signed up to Your Party will have space to meet and organise and agree their representation on a Steering Committee alongside the independent councillors and representatives from local community organisations.

Work is being done on a constitution and party registration for the 2026 Haringey Council Elections. The group very much sees itself as becoming part of Your Party when that becomes possible. But given the tight timescale, preparations are being made to select candidates and campaign under the HSA name for now, in case Your Party doesn’t manage to get registered/prepared in time. However, the group wants to be in contact with Your Party so we can become part of the new national party, while retaining a real local community base. That may include adopting the new party name if that is feasible in the timescale before the May elections.

Doug Thorpe

Report: Warrington

Our organising in Warrington has been going strength to strength ever since the announcements began around Your Party. Our network of volunteers, passionate, hopeful and courageous, has grown to 33 already, with everyone ready to get out in our communities, on doors and holding meetings, using their skills to help lay the foundations for a party of the people in our hometown.

We have also connected with other organisers in other towns and cities, resource and knowledge sharing, strengthening the movement and helping us share lessons learned. We now have a core steering team of 8 and our wider network to put local plans into action as loudly and visibly as we can.

We are also in the process of planning our first public meeting to invite everyone along to, where we can discuss what we want on a local and national level, strategy and ultimately, to begin the process of bringing barriers down between people where we have the space to hear each other.

Excitingly, we are planning a launch event now, supported by local businesses, artists and musicians, to hopefully get local people to start imagining something truly different and spread some much-needed hope and solidarity. There will be inspiring speakers and guests coming to support us, demonstrating the collective will that we have across the country to finally have our first national left wing party that fights for us all. We hope this will increase membership to Your Party, whilst also hoping to inspire others to find their voice and participate in real, grassroots, bottom-up democracy. In the darkest of times, light like this has the most powerful impact, and we’ve really seen that impact in how local people are engaging with everything around Your Party.

Maddison Wheeldon

Report: Wirral

The big rally in Liverpool invigorated so many people. Following this, a few of us from across the water decided to set up our own Wirral Community Independents. A Steering Group of 20 people quickly formed on WhatsApp, a good mixture of political experience and fresh perspectives. We’ve been holding face to face organising meetings every couple of weeks. We welcomed the new party launch and reaffirmed our intention to merge into it. However it could be several months until local branches can be established, and with local elections due in 2027 we think now is the right time to start asking for money and putting the new party on the map. Our Facebook page already has 300 followers, and we’ve also launched on Bluesky and TikTok.

We’ve adopted a constitution and are in the process of opening a bank account so that we can sign up our supporters as subs paying members. Our first public events are planned for next month. In our latest email, we reassure supporters that we’re not trying to take anything over: we’ll be wanting the new party branches to be representative of the whole community, and to operate in a way that’s open and democratic.

Linda Wall

Report: Transform members meeting 10th August

The meeting invitation set three options for discussion:

• Stay as we are
• Deregister as a political party but remain as an organisation that acts as a pressure group and supports the development of community groups and promotes our principles
• Dissolve completely and hand over our assets to the new party.

The Strategy Group advised that in their judgement, option 1 was not feasible.

The majority of people in the room favoured option two. It was felt that Transform’s core principles represent a set of values that we’re proud to mobilise around, and that we’d want to see established in the new party. Mention was also made of the valuable role that Transform had played in creating its Left List in the run-up to the General Election, in its Community Action Groups project, and so on. The point was made that while we’re all investing a lot of hope in the new party, the best time to consider our relationship with it will be after the Founding Conference, by which time a lot more will be known.

A couple of members struck notes of caution. Transform is losing members to the new party, and that’s likely to continue. We have to consider the demands on our activists of continuing to run an independent operation indefinitely. We also run the risk of being politically sidelined. We have substantial funds in our bank account which will be best employed by handing them over to the new party.

We’ll be returning to this debate at future meetings.

Join Transform today to support us in our efforts to ground the new party on democracy, openness, inclusivity and equality. For all those for whom subs are an issue, we now offer concessionary membership at £1 per annum (no evidence required).

Upcoming internal elections

We will be holding internal elections for the positions of Strategy and Communication Officer very soon.  Developments surrounding the formation of Your Party have increased the need for these pivotal roles to be filled. These are exciting times and there is much work for us to do in preparation. Links to the original officer role descriptions can be found here:

Transform Communications Officer JD

Transform Strategy Officer JD

If you are interested in either of these positions, please send your name and up to 300 words about why you are standing to info@transformpolitics.uk by midnight on 27th August.

Calendar of events

August (various dates): Trade Unionists for a New Party

Caucuses of UCU, Unison, NEU, GMB and Usdaw members are taking place online in the coming days. Click here for the dates and registration links.

Friday 22 August: Your Party South Devon meeting

Thursday 4 – Friday 5 Sept: The Gaza Tribunal

Tribunal website, which includes details of how you can watch the proceedings

Wednesday 17 September: No to Trump’s state visit

Saturday 27 September: Community Action Group Convention

Save the date: publicity will be going out shortly. The venue will be Birmingham’s Muath Trust Community Centre.

Thursday 9 – Sunday 12 October: The World Transformed 2025

Ticket sales are now open for TWT25, which will be in Manchester.

Next Newsletter

The next Newsletter is due out on 3rd September. Please keep those reports coming: we’d like to hear about what’s being done to build Your Party in your region. All contributions and event announcements to be sent to us please at info@transformpolitics.uk, marked for the attention of the Newsletter team.

In solidarity,

Transform Newsletter Team