The Democratic Labour Party was a small

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left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

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Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

, sometimes known as the Walsall Democratic Labour Party. It was founded as a breakaway from the Labour Party after left-wing members were expelled in the mid-90s.

Origins 1995–1999

Dave Church (known as "Citizen Dave"), his deputy John Rothery, and others on the left of Walsall Labour Party had supported a policy of radical

decentralisation Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

of power since the early 1980s, but the

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

of the party had held power as

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, ...

councillors, preventing the enactment of the policies. In May 1995, after three years during which the left-wing councillors were suspended from the party for 'operating their own caucus', the left gained control of the council. They sacked nine council department heads, proposing to replace them with 54 directly-elected neighbourhood councils. The spectre of the "

Loony left The loony left is a pejorative term used to describe those considered to be politically hard left. First recorded as used in 1977, the term was widely used in the United Kingdom in the campaign for the 1987 general election and subsequently both ...

" alarmed Labour Party central office, who suspended the district party that August. Church faced claims of 'intimidation tactics', and Church, Rothery and Brian Powell were expelled from the Labour Party by the

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in November 1995 for running a "party within a party" called the Walsall Socialist Group. Eleven councillors in all broke away from the Labour Party. The Democratic Labour Party was officially registered in 1999.

Electoral history

None of the 10 Democratic Labour candidates in the 1998 local elections won a seat, losing four seats including that of the deputy leader John Rothery to Labour. Labour returned to overall control of the council, and Democratic Labour were left with six councillors. The party lost its remaining seats in the 1999 election, three to Labour and three to the Conservatives, and despite standing 15 candidates at the 2000 election did not win back any seats. Joined by other local left-wingers, they helped set up their local Socialist Alliance, and stood as candidates under its banner in elections until it was disbanded. Dave Church stood for the Socialist Alliance in

Walsall North Walsall North is a constituency created in 1955 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member of the Conservative Party. The local electorate returned a Labour MP in the seat's first seventeen ...

in the 2001 general election, gaining 410 votes (1.3%).

Return 2005–2016

In the 2005 general election, Church stood for Democratic Labour, again in Walsall North, receiving 770 votes (2.3%). In 2007, Pete Smith won a council seat on Walsall Council from Labour in the Blakenall ward. Smith also stood in

and gained 842 votes, 2.3% of the vote at the 2010 general election. He lost his council seat in 2011 but was re-elected in 2012 on an anti-cuts platform; the DLP then affiliated to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. In 2016 the DLP effectively ceased to exist for a second time when Smith lost his council seat in the local elections.

References

{{reflist, 2 Labour Party (UK) breakaway groups Labour parties in the United Kingdom Political parties disestablished in 2016 Political parties established in 1998 Defunct political parties in England Defunct socialist parties in the United Kingdom 1998 establishments in England 2016 disestablishments in England