The People's Party or Socialist People's Party was a minor

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

region of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The party was founded in 1995 by four Labour Party borough councillors who had been suspended from Labour for opposing a reduction in the

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether i ...

budget. It was initially known as the People's Labour Party, and stood their chair, Jim Hamezeian, in the Barrow and Furness constituency in the 1997 general election. He received 1,995 votes, 4.1% of the total in the constituency. The party campaigned on a variety of local issues. A split led to two of its four councillors leaving and standing as independents in the 2003 local elections; the two People's Party councillors then lost their seats. However, in the 2006 local elections, party leader Jim Hamezian regained his seat in the

Ormsgill Ormsgill is an area and ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is bordered by Hindpool, Parkside, Hawcoat, Roanhead and Walney Channel. The population of the ward in 2001 stood at 5,961 (2,883 male and 3,078 female),increasing to 6,03 ...

ward. In the 2008 local elections, one councillor was elected in Central Ward and three others elected in Ormsgill. Following this, in elections to

Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria in the North West of England. Established in April 1974, following its first elections held the previous year, it is an elected local government body respon ...

in 2009, Jim Hamezeian was elected to serve for Ormsgill ward in Barrow-in-Furness. After that, the party's support dropped: in the 2010 local elections the SPP lost two councillors, and lost all representation on the Borough council in 2011 local elections. The SPP retained one councillor on

until the May 2013 elections, when they lost all representation. The party deregistered with the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

in 2015 and its website is no longer active.

References

External links

Socialist People's Party
{{Authority control Labour Party (UK) breakaway groups Political parties established in 1995 Political parties disestablished in 2015 Socialist parties in England Furness Defunct socialist parties in the United Kingdom Politics of Cumbria 1995 establishments in England 2015 disestablishments in England