The situation has been attributed to 'inaction and decisions taken by Your Party at a UK level'
Your Party will allegedly not be able to field candidates in the upcoming Holyrood elections on Thursday 7 May due to reported “inaction” and decisions taken by the central party.
Niall Christie, the sole Scottish representative on the left-wing party’s central executive committee (CEC) has told The National that Scottish Your Party candidates won’t be able to stand “regardless of whether they want to”.
Your Party chair Jenn Forbes has said that party leaders will “work at pace with members in Scotland and Wales to facilitate member-led strategies for the upcoming Holyrood and Senedd elections”.
However, given that the next CEC meeting will take place on 10 April, nine days after the deadline to register candidates on 1 April, members have argued that there won’t be time to select candidates.
“As a result of inaction and decisions taken by Your Party at a UK level, members in Scotland will be unable – regardless of whether they want to – to stand Your Party candidates in May’s election,” Christie claimed.
Pointing to the fact that nearly 70% of members voted to stand candidates in the election at the party’s inaugural Scottish conference in February, Christie said that Scottish Your Party members are “being overruled by decisions taken at CEC level”.
Speaking to The National, Christie said: “It’s clear there’s a need for a new party of the left to be on the ballot paper.
“There will be thousands of Your Party members who would have hoped that could have been us, but with so little time to go until the deadline for candidates that simply isn’t possible this time.”
Earlier this month, The National reported that Scottish Your Party members were quitting the party due to uncertainty over whether they would stand candidates in the Holyrood elections.
Your Party’s launch has been marked by numerous false starts.
These include legal action initiated by Jeremy Corbyn’s group against Zarah Sultana for the unauthorised launch of a membership platform, as well as counter legal threats against Corbyn concerning “defamatory” comments made about Sultana.
Your Party will stand candidates in local elections taking place on 7 May. It has also previously endorsed local independent candidates where it does not have a Your Party candidate standing, such as in a by-election in Moseley, Birmingham last October.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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