52 Facts About Respect Party

Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016.

Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot in 2004.

Respect Party made further gains in the 2006 and 2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked.

Avowedly socialist and opposed to capitalism, Respect Party called for the nationalisation of much of the UK economy, increased funding to public services, and further measures to tackle poverty and discrimination.

Respect Party's policies have been described as "traditionally leftist and anti-capitalist".

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Respect Party encouraged the nationalisation of many sectors of the economy, including the railways, water, gas, electricity, and the North Sea oil industry.

Respect Party was anti-globalization, believing that it resulted in the exploitation of the working class.

Respect Party was anti-Zionist and, according to Benedek, rejected "the right to independent Jewish statehood in Israel".

One of its core principles was stated support for the Palestinian people and opposition to what Respect Party described as "the apartheid system that oppresses them".

Respect Party was supportive of anti-Zionist Islamist militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Respect Party emerged from the British anti-war movement which had developed from late 2001 onward.

The Stop the War Coalition had been established in September 2001, with a central role being played by the Socialist Workers Respect Party, which was then the largest radical left group in the UK.

Respect Party then announced that he would stand against Labour in the 2004 European Parliament elections, and that he would "seek to unify the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war, in a referendum on Tony Blair".

Respect Party fielded candidates for both the 2004 elections for the European Parliament and for the London Assembly, attempting to present these elections as a referendum on Blair's Labour government.

Respect Party polled a quarter of a million votes in the EP election.

The strong showing of the Greens and the UK Independence Respect Party had been part of the reason for this failure to secure a seat.

At the time, following defections from other parties, Respect Party had a council seat in Nuneaton and another in Preston.

Respect Party recognised that East London, an area with large numbers of Muslim British Bangladeshis, would be electorally lucrative, particularly as three of the area's four sitting Labour MPs had voted in favour of British participation in the invasion of Iraq.

At the 2005 general election Respect Party fielded candidates in this area: Lindsey German in West Ham, Abdul Khaliq Mian in East Ham, Rahman in Poplar and Canning Town, and Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow.

Respect Party alleged that she had been the victim of antisemitism from Respect supporters after having been pelted with eggs at a Jewish memorial service.

Respect Party claimed that Respect canvassers had urged Muslims not to vote for her because she is Jewish.

Respect Party's victory represented the first time that a party to the left of Labour had won a seat in the Houses of Parliament since 1951.

Respect Party did well in several other constituencies, coming second to Labour in both West Ham and East Ham, and securing second place in Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where Yaqoob had been its candidate, securing 27.

Respect Party made "rapid progress", aided by growing finances and the existing campaign experience of the far left.

Respect Party's hope was to use it as a public relations exercise in which he could promote his views to a wider audience, however this backfired as Channel 4 producers censored most of his political discussions.

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Respect Party stood about 150 candidates in the 2006 local elections, at which it secured 16 seats.

In Tower Hamlets, Respect Party took eleven new council seats, giving it a total of twelve and making it the borough's official opposition to Labour.

Respect Party stood 48 candidates in the 2007 local election, of which three were elected.

The second, which named itself Respect Renewal, was led by Galloway and Yaqoob and had the support of virtually all of the party's elected representatives and national council.

SWP-dominated branches of Respect Party were reportedly less active than those with far fewer members of that group.

Respect Party had not fielded a candidate for London Mayor, instead endorsing Labour's Ken Livingstone, while Left List had fielded German, who secured significantly fewer votes than she had gained as a Respect Party candidate for Mayor in 2004.

Respect Party fielded ten candidates in the 2010 general election, with a particular focus on three that they considered winnable.

Respect Party fielded eight more candidates in other constituencies, who together polled 4,319 votes.

In total, Respect Party candidates received 33,269 votes, which amounted to 6.

Respect Party campaigned under the banner of Coalition Against the Cuts, but the vote was insufficient to gain a seat in the Scottish proportional voting system.

Respect Party told a reporter from The Guardian that she had had to make a choice between "standing up for the rights of women" and her admiration for Galloway's "anti-imperialist stance".

In October 2012, party secretary Chris Chilvers said Respect had 2,000 members, while before the by-election it had 300.

In November 2012, at a rally in Rotherham, Respect Party announced Yvonne Ridley had been chosen to contend the Rotherham by-election.

Respect Party won five seats on Bradford Council in May 2012 following Galloway's success in the by-election at the end of March.

Two other Respect Party councillors lost their seats, leaving Respect Party without any representation on local authorities.

At the 2015 general election, Respect Party had four candidates, in Halifax and two Birmingham seats in addition to Bradford West.

Where Respect Party was not standing in the election, Galloway had urged a vote for Labour in 2013, having met and been impressed with then Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Respect Party's application was rejected by her local constituency Labour Party owing to her standing against Labour candidates.

Respect Party failed to hold any of their seats in Bradford in the 2016 local elections, leaving them without any representation at any level of government.

Since its formation, Respect has presented itself as being "genuinely left" and has sought to appeal to leftist voters dissatisfied with the Labour Party's shift to the centre under the leadership of Blair and Gordon Brown.

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Respect Party appealed in particular to British Muslims who had been disenchanted by the war.

Peace suggested that Respect Party had been successful in East London and Birmingham and not other areas with Muslim communities because these two areas had established anti-war movements and that Respect Party candidates had already become well known within that movement.

Respect Party has been accused of abandoning some traditional social-liberal issues, including women's rights, abortion, gay rights and fighting homophobia, to attract Muslim support.

The Respect Party stated that "such views are demonstrably incompatible with party membership".

Respect Party was alleged to have struck him in the face, smacking off his eyeglasses, while he was protecting Israeli goods from potentially being damaged.

Respect Party threatened to sue her for the comments made on Twitter in February 2015, although the tweet had already been deleted.

Respect Party's tweet followed the Question Time George Galloway in Finchley controversy, an edition of the BBC's political debate series on which Freeman's Guardian colleague Jonathan Freedland had appeared and made similar assertions about Galloway's conduct.