I decided to compile all the biographies for the public office holder candidates into one document for ease of reference. Thought it might be useful for others.

Shockat Adam

Standing as part of The Many campaign with Jeremy Corbyn.

Let’s get Your Party back on track.

I’m Shockat Adam, MP for Leicester South. In 2024 I was elected to parliament as an independent, unseating Jonathan Ashworth thanks to a truly grassroots campaign. Something extraordinary happened in that election: in several constituencies people got together, organised, rallied, and said “No” to the establishment parties. I see Your Party as the logical next step, harnessing all that energy for positive change.

When I got to parliament, one of the first things I did was propose a private members bill to recognise the state of Palestine. It’s not enough, of course, in the face of genocide; I will never stop fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people. Gaza has changed the world as we know it forever.

I have spoken out against the two-child benefit cap — I tabled an amendment to the King’s Speech to scrap it — and campaigned for wealth taxes, for full compensation for WASPI women, and for the reversal of cuts to disability payments. I want to help bring communities together to organise for change from the ground up, as Labour fails us.

I am an optometrist by profession. Before becoming an MP, I was actively involved in campaigns on community cohesion, fighting racism, and NHS community initiatives.

If we leave the internal wrangling behind and campaign on what matters most to people — including the lack of affordable housing, the absence of opportunities for young people, and the spiralling cost of living — Your Party can meet the hopes of so many people in our country.

Please vote for me, Ayoub Khan, Laura Smith and Jeremy Corbyn as public office holders, alongside candidates standing with The Many in your area.

Jeremy Corbyn

Let’s get Your Party back on track!

I’m Jeremy Corbyn, a local activist from Islington North, standing for the CEC as part of The Many campaign.

I want Your Party to campaign fearlessly and positively on what matters most to people — from the housing crisis, to poverty pay, to Israel’s genocide.

Across our country, millions of people are demanding policies like public ownership, wealth taxes, rent controls, environmental sustainability and peace. Your Party can be that alternative to poverty, inequality and war.

Let’s empower people of all communities by coming together. We can challenge the far-right by uniting people on the issues that affect us all: rising rents, growing inequality, the privatisation of our public services, and the need for a real community care service.

If elected to the committee, I will work with local independent groups across the country who have been building community power in their areas. I will argue for the CEC to make the formation of official Your Party branches a priority and will recommend branches hold a community forum or assembly once a month. Your Party should not only be accountable to the community. It must be part and parcel of the community.

I want our members’ activities to be focused solely on building Your Party and mobilising for its success. I want Your Party to be open and pluralistic, working with other parties where we agree, whilst building our own identity as a mass, grassroots, community-based movement that organises day-in, day-out for a fairer society.

It’s time to bring Your Party back to its original, popular vision: offering a bold left-wing alternative to a failed political class.

We can reunite our cross-community coalition by campaigning on the vision that brings us together: a world in which everybody lives in dignity.

Together, we can be that powerful grassroots force for change. Together, we can organise in working class communities, in tenants’ unions, in peace campaigns, and show the public whose side we’re on. Together, we can build a party for the many.

Please vote for me, Ayoub Khan, Laura Smith and Shockat Adam as public office holders, alongside candidates standing with The Many in your region.

Keith Fernie

Councillor for Fitzwilliam and Kinsley ward, Hemsworth Town Council.
Resigned from the Labour Party in March 2024, branch secretary at the time, reason for resigning was because of Gaza, timing due to paying an annual subscription and I wasn’t going to pay money to renew.
74 years old, male, a retired member of Unite.
Not on a slate. Just a member putting my name forward to see what happens, Already been barred from standing with a successful appeal.
Not going to have dual membership myself, don’t have to worry about breaking the other party’s rules and don’t want to be in 2 national parties.
The May 2026 should be an immediate priority, once the CEC is in place branches need to be formally created and we must have candidates standing for Your Party. There will only be a short period of time to do this.

Ayoub Khan

Standing as part of The Many campaign with Jeremy Corbyn.

Let’s get Your Party back on track.

My name is Ayoub Khan MP. In 2024, I was elected as an independent to represent Birmingham Perry Barr, an inner-city area that bears the scars of austerity. My constituency is home to Aston Villa FC. When Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv — known for their racist, hooligan supporters — were set to play Villa last October, I led a campaign to have their fans banned.

I soon experienced how it feels to have the weight of the establishment come down on your head. I was traduced for standing up for what my community — and most of the British public — wanted. But it was the right stance. I believe that not just Maccabi Tel Aviv but all Israeli sports teams should be barred from international competition. There can be no impunity for genocide.

The foundation of my politics is justice, equality and fairness. So when the Birmingham bin workers went on strike after the council recklessly cut their pay by up to 25%, I was proud to stand with them in struggle. Shamefully, I was the only Birmingham MP to do so.

We are part of a movement that fights injustice wherever it is found. If we believe in bottom-up politics then everyone must be heard, and all communities welcomed.

Let’s campaign on what matters to people who work full time but cannot afford rent, to families having to skip meals, and to communities whose once thriving neighbourhoods now feel abandoned. Together we will build a mass movement for change.

Please vote for me, Shockat Adam, Laura Smith and Jeremy Corbyn as public office holders, alongside candidates standing with The Many in your area.

Michael Lavalette

I’m a councillor on Lancashire County Council, elected in May 2025 as one of three Preston Independents. We are part of the Progressive Lancashire grouping which unites Independents and Greens as the Official Opposition to Reform.

In the 2024 General Election I stood as a pro-Palestine Independent and came second with 22% of the vote. I was previously a Preston City Council councillor (2003-2015) for Socialist Alliance, Respect and an Independent Socialist.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza I’ve organised coaches to every national demonstration and I’ve been the organiser of all local demonstrations against the slaughter.

Since the launch of YP I have spoken at meetings across the country - sharing platforms with Jeremy, Zarah and many other national and local speakers.

I believe in concentrating on what unites us, rather than factional divisions.

I’m not on any slate. I support grassroots democracy and oppose witch-hunts.

I want to work to unify YP around key demands:

  • End the cost of living crisis; tackle obscene levels of inequality.

  • Welfare not warfare; invest in public services, no to privatisation, kick the market out of service delivery.

  • Initiate an urgent council house building programme.

  • Renationalise public utilities without compensation.

  • For peace and against war. For the liberation of Palestine, against imperial adventures in Venezuela, Greenland and the Middle East.

  • Against all forms of oppression.

  • For the abolition of anti-trade union legislation.

  • For a green new deal, to invest in jobs and protect our environment.
    Defend civil liberties, against Starmer’s authoritarianism

YP should be a broad, left of Labour Party that is united and active in our communities, our unions and our social movements. Elected representatives should be accountable to working class communities, but also be ‘megaphones’ for our movements to amplify and deepen our collective struggles for a better world.

Grace Lewis

I am Grace Lewis, a Coventry City Councillor. I am 22, and I was the first councillor to publicly defect from Labour to Your Party. I did it because I refused to be complicit in a politics that manages decline, while people in our city are being asked to sacrifice more and receive less. I am standing with Grassroots Left as I want to give power to members and branches. This means immediate recognition and full access to data.

I won my seat by beating an incumbent Conservative by over 500 votes. That was not because of clever slogans. It was because we knocked doors, listened properly, and built a campaign with people who were fed up with being ignored. I have stood alongside workers, students and the Palestine solidarity movement, and I have learned that you earn trust by showing up again and again, not just when there is a headline.

Grassroots Left is about members having real power. It is about local branches being properly supported with funding and practical tools so they can organise all year round. It is also about accountability that is more than words, with clear reporting, mandatory reselection, and the right of recall, because a party only stays rooted if its members can hold it to its values.

I care a lot about youth and student organising, because young people are often treated as an afterthought in politics, even though we are living with the consequences. I also want us to take anti fascism seriously and protect every community targeted by scapegoating and hate.

If you want a party that is member led, grounded in the working class, and brave enough to stand firm, please read the programme at grassrootsleft.org and back Grassroots Left.

Please endorse and vote for Grace Lewis #1 and Zarah Sultana #2

Shehrazade Mamjan

I joined the Labour Party inspired by Jeremy Corbyn and a shared commitment to social justice, equality and humanity. At the time, I never expected to be asked to stand as a councillor. When elected, I entered local government without mentoring, guidance or meaningful support, and spent the next two and a half years learning- often alone, what it truly means to serve a community with integrity.

That journey was made harder by suspension from the Labour Party region, following an internal complaint that conflated criticism of political ideology with allegations of antisemitism. Needless to say, I reject antisemitism unequivocally, as I do all forms of racism and other forms of discrimination. I was left in limbo for 433 days, sidelined and silenced without due process. This experience exposed serious structural failings and a growing disconnect from grassroots members.

I resigned and continued my work as an independent councillor, committed to my ward and to principled, accountable politics.

Since then, my workload and community engagement have only grown. My politics is rooted in the grassroots: listening to residents, standing with them and getting things done rather than making promises. I am driven by a lifelong commitment to humanity and social justice, practised daily through my NGO and informed by over two decades of hands-on work with charities and minorities and other vulnerable people facing hardship.

I am standing for the Your Party CEC because I believe we are building a party that listens, protects its members and puts people before factions.

Tony Rea

People in the UK need a socialist government. They need Your Party to succeed. My knowledge and experience will strengthen the CEC and aid this success.
Your Party must build from the roots of community and local democracy. I have been a member of the Ivybridge Town Council since being co-opted in 2017. In 2023 I was re-elected as an Independent Socialist, using the TUSC emblem. This has given me a wealth of experience of how local government works, what can and can’t be done, how budgets and precepts are set, how councillors can be held to account. It has also provided much experience of case work.
I represent the residents of a small town in a rural area of southwest England. Yet there is severe deprivation, poverty, and lack of provision here, just like anywhere in Britain. And there are hundreds of towns just like mine - thousands of electors searching for social justice. Your Party must serve them, it cannot ignore the provinces.
I am a member of the University and Colleges Union, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (I visited the illegally occupied West Bank on a study visit in 2022) and I raise funds for the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Now retired, my professional career was in education, and I have a wealth of experience in this area to bring to the CEC. Until I joined Your Party, I was a member of the Socialist Education Association and served on its Executive Committee. My lobbying of Angela Rayner helped shape Labour’s National Education Service agenda. I have a number of short articles published in the Morning Star newspaper.
I want to bring my wide experience of education, local governance and small town, provincial agendas to the CEC and help form an inclusive direction of Your Party.

Laura Smith

Endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn as part of The Many campaign — For a People’s Party.

Let’s get Your Party back on track.

I’m Laura Smith. I know how the Westminster bubble works—and how out of touch it can be with the struggles of everyday people. I’ve been there. I served as the MP for Crewe and Nantwich and as a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn.

So I’ve seen what goes on in the corridors of power, and that’s why I believe the real fight must happen in our communities and workplaces, where people live, work, and organise.

I’ve seen how families are squeezed by rising bills, insecure work, and underfunded public services—all while corporations and elites profit. I’m determined to reconnect with those who have lost hope and strengthen a movement that reminds them of their power and voice.

I have worked in education for much of my adult life, I’m a dedicated trade unionist, an experienced community organiser, and a committed councillor. I’ve spent my life standing with ordinary people: in classrooms, workplaces, council chambers, and Parliament, fighting for fairness, opportunity, hope, and standing against oppression.

I want to help build a democratic, inclusive party that listens to communities and acts on their needs. Together, we can push for a new economic model that works for local people, not global profits—a model that invests in jobs, public services, and the environment, and strengthens the communities we live in.

That’s why I’m standing for the CEC as part of The Many: because we need to face out and build a mass movement that challenges for power, not be a fringe party trapped on the sidelines.

Please vote for me, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Jeremy Corbyn as public office holders, alongside candidates standing with The Many in your area.

Zarah Sultana

I am Zarah Sultana, Your Party MP for Coventry South, standing with Grassroots Left because I believe our party must be rooted in workplaces and everyday struggle. Before Parliament, I worked minimum-wage jobs at Primark and H&M and becoming a trade unionist taught me that when people stand together, even what seems immovable can be changed.

My politics have been shaped by austerity and decisions like the tripling of tuition fees, which told a generation to lower its expectations and settle for less. I have seen how quickly the state can turn to violence, and how marginalised communities always pay the price. That’s why in Parliament I fight not just for civil liberties, but for policies that fight poverty and defend dignity: universal free school meals, ending the two-child benefit cap and protecting winter fuel payments. We must oppose oppression everywhere, which is why I am a proud anti-Zionist and committed to Palestinian liberation, from the river to the sea.

Grassroots Left is the clear choice for the party. We believe in a party run by you - the members - not MPs. We want to give power back to members, formalise your branches immediately and give you full access to the data you’ve been demanding for so long.

I co-founded Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn because I believe in a socialist alternative built from movements and people’s everyday struggles, not Westminster games. I want to end the toxic culture of the Labour right and unify our party to build socialism in this country and confront the forces of fascism growling at the door. It’s socialism or barbarism - and we must choose socialism.

Read our programme at grassrootsleft.org and help us build that vision together. Please endorse and vote for Zarah Sultana #1 and Grace Lewis #2.