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 area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...

region of England. 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 refers to a property containing one or more Shelter (building), shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and right to ...

budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...

. 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 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 was 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 was an elected local government body re ...

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