Lesley Elizabeth Mahmood is a British politician. She was active in Militant and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

politics along with her brother Roy Farrar in the 1970s and 1980s. Mahmood was prominent in the Liverpool District Labour Party's campaign for more money for the city from the government of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, and was elected to the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

as part of the Liverpool 29 who replaced the Liverpool 47 when they were surcharged in 1986. She was also prominent in the campaign against the Poll Tax and was put forward to be the Labour candidate in the Liverpool Walton by-election caused by the death of

Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...

in 1991. Although she won a majority of 92 out of 140 Walton Labour Party members, once the union votes were counted,

Peter Kilfoyle Peter Kilfoyle (born 9 June 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010. Early life The eleventh of fourteen children born to an Irish Catholic family on Merseyside, ...

became the Labour Party candidate. In the ensuing by-election, Kilfoyle won with 21,317 (53.1%) votes while Mahmood, standing as Walton Real Labour, came third with 2,613 and 6.5% of the vote. The Walton by-election was a factor in the decision by Militant to leave the Labour Party, setting up first Militant Labour and then the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

.Marxism and the British Labour Party, For The Scottish Turn: Against Dogmatic Methods In Thought And Action
/ref> Mahmood was later active in support of the sacked Liverpool Dockers. She left the Socialist Party in 1998 in disputes over the Euro, trade unions, and the relevance of democratic centralism to modern socialist politics and became a supporter of the

Socialist Solidarity Network The Socialist Solidarity Network was a grouping of socialists in the United Kingdom most of whom were former members of the Socialist Party. They supported the Socialist Alliance in England and support the Scottish Socialist Party in Scotland. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmood, Lesley British Trotskyists Councillors in Liverpool Militant tendency supporters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Politicians from Liverpool Socialist Party (England and Wales) members Women councillors in England