Our Candidates

Ian Spencer is standing for election to the CEC because he believes Your Party must be a democratic, mass socialist party committed to working-class power and internationalism, with production organised to meet human need and protect the environment. He supports the Grassroots Left slate and argues for principled left unity, with members free to organise openly in platforms and tendencies. He opposes censorship, secrecy, and the recent expulsions of SWP members, and supports their immediate reinstatement.

If elected, he pledges to publish regular open reports and to campaign for a democratic conference in 2026, with future conferences made up of democratically elected branch delegates. A retired nurse and teacher, he has been a UCU rep and is Finance Officer and trustee of the People’s Bookshop in Durham. He joined Your Party on its first day, has a background in local government as both a Labour and independent socialist parish councillor, and is active in PSC and Stop the War. He contributes to the Weekly Worker and has taught Marxist political economy through universities and the Why Marx? education series.

Myra Shoko began organising locally after the Supreme Court verdict on the Equality Act. She supports her local branch with sound tech and meeting planning, has chaired meetings, given speeches, represented members, and attended council meetings on local issues. She has also led discussions on cyber security and digital privacy in relation to the Online Safety Act and digital ID.

She is campaigning for a society free from discrimination, resisting moves toward digital authoritarianism and the erosion of online privacy, and building a democratic socialist, working-class-led movement. She believes strong, well-funded grassroots branches and left unity are essential to improving communities damaged by austerity.

Chloe Braddock is a socialist organiser with a background in tenant unionism, anti-imperialist organising and anti-fascist struggle. She has been a leading figure in the Democratic Socialists of Your Party and has worked across the wider socialist movement, gaining a clear view of where today’s struggles are being fought. Chloe argues for a politically bold, radically democratic party rooted in rank-and-file power. She believes real change is built through organising in communities and on the streets, not by chasing electoral office alone.

Haifa Alkhanshali is a community activist with a strong commitment to grassroots organising and people-powered movements. Active in campaigning from a young age, she has consistently taken part in protests, charity initiatives, and community advocacy, always standing up for those most in need. Haifa is one of the lead chanters for Liverpool Friends of Palestine Sunday marches, helping mobilise and energise collective action locally. Her politics are rooted in growth, inclusion, and justice, with a firm belief in holding individuals and institutions accountable for crimes and war crimes. On the Executive Committee, she is committed to helping build a democratic, principled, and inclusive party fit for the future.

Grace Lewis is a 22-year-old Coventry City Councillor and the first councillor to publicly defect from Labour to Your Party. A socialist and anti-imperialist organiser since her teens, she beat an incumbent conservative councillor by over 500 votes through grassroots campaigning and stood alongside workers, students and Palestine solidarity movements. Grace believes real change is built through member-led organisation, not Westminster manoeuvring. On the CEC, she argues for democratic accountability, strong youth and student organising, empowered local branches, and a party rooted firmly in working-class interests and anti-fascist struggle.

Zarah Sultana is a Your Party MP with a background in community organising and movement building. Before entering Parliament in 2019, she worked at Primark and H&M, becoming a trade unionist and organising with colleagues on pay, conditions and workplace rights. Her politics are shaped by the impacts of austerity, the tripling of tuition fees, state violence and attacks on civil liberties, especially affecting marginalised communities. In Parliament, she campaigns for public ownership, universal free school meals, ending the two-child benefit cap, tenants’ rights and Palestinian liberation, including ending UK arms sales to Israel. She co-founded Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn and champions maximum member democracy.

Graham Jones is a socialist organiser from Shropshire with experience in housing, mental health, community education and Palestine solidarity work. He is the author of Shock Doctrine of the Left and Red Enlightenment, and is currently boycotting his publisher as part of the Boycott Watkins campaign for Palestine. Graham’s priorities are political education, grassroots leadership development, and building democratic, effective party structures. A disabled organiser, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and carer, he brings a strong commitment to inclusion, solidarity and principled socialist organisation.

Megan Clarke is a trade union organiser, Palestine campaigner and Acorn member. She helped found the Your Party proto-branch in Warwick and Leamington and has stood in a local by-election as an affiliated independent candidate. Megan believes the party must be built from the ground up, with strong, active branches at its core. On the CEC, she is committed to ensuring branches have the funding, data and resources they need to organise effectively and maintain a real presence in their communities.

Chris Saltmarsh is an eco-socialist activist based in Sheffield with deep roots in the climate movement and trade unionism. He has led campaigns for fossil fuel divestment, taken direct action against fracking, and co-founded Labour for a Green New Deal in 2019. A former Unite rep and current UCU activist, Chris is a member of Eco-Socialist Horizon. On the CEC, he aims to help build a mass, democratic, member-led party capable of leading effective action against the climate crisis.

Sophie Wilson is an activist from Sheffield dedicated to grassroots campaigning and working class socialist representation. She served as a Labour Councillor in Sheffield for 5 years before resigning from the party and sitting as an Independent for another 2 years. She is a member of Unite, feels at home on a picketline, was previously an elected national board member for the community union ACORN and was previously a Labour parliamentary candidate for Rother Valley. She is running for the CEC to promote democratic accountability, unity across the left and hopes to ensure Your Party can be a positive force for change when we need it most.

Candi Williams is a care-experienced activist, author, socialist and union member who helped build Your Party Bristol from the ground up. With over a decade of organising experience, she has supported refugees, worked with vulnerable young people, and fought fascism locally. Since joining, she has helped grow the branch from 40 to 400 members and organised major rallies and assemblies. Candi is committed to anti-fascism, anti-imperialism and liberation politics, grounding solidarity in action; and standing with people of colour, women, trans and queer people, disabled people, refugees, and all those facing oppression.

Mark Gage came to politics through CND and served as a Labour councillor in London for eight years, and later as an independent socialist councillor in Dorset for four. He is a member of Unite, PSC, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and Republic. After leaving Labour in 1994, he rejoined to support Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership bid, serving as West Dorset CLP Secretary and then Chair, before leaving again in 2020. He has raised funds for and worked with refugees in Calais, is a founding trustee of a charity resettling refugee families in the UK, and has helped set up the West Dorset proto-branch since joining Your Party.

He argues for a mass movement party that is member-led, genuinely democratic and transparent, uniting the left across traditions, with power rooted in grassroots branches. He believes the rise of the far right and repeated Labour betrayals make a bold socialist alternative essential. Seeking to represent the South West, he highlights hidden rural poverty and the region’s housing crisis as a priority, shaped by his own experience of homelessness.

Anjona Roy is a UNISON activist in the Community sector and represents members on the East Midlands Service Group and represents East Midlands UNISON members on the national UNISON Service Group Executive. Most recently she has been actively supporting Andrea Egan’s successful campaign to become UNISON General Secretary with other Time for Real Change activists. She is active in the local black community and Chair an umbrella group called Northamptonshire Black Communities Together. She in the past served as a Labour Councillor on Northampton Borough Council and Northamptonshire County Council.

Anwarul Khan joined Labour in 1995 and left in 1997 after Labour introduced tuition fees. As a student, he took part in protests and marches, and as a teacher he has consistently supported strike action through his union. For many years after that, he felt politically homeless.

He later joined Transform and became the national organiser, setting up a team to build relationships with like-minded socialist and activist groups. He organised the first meetings in Leicester and Leicestershire that brought different socialist groups and activists together, which helped lead to the Leicestershire YP protobranch. He also co-founded the Connections network, bringing together representatives from YP protobranches and now covering 35% of UK constituencies.

Max Shanly is a socialist organiser and writer with eighteen years’ experience in the workers’ movement. A computer technician by trade, he became politically active after confronting the limits of workplace trade unionism. He served on the Young Labour National Committee from 2013–18, was Zarah Sultana’s running mate in the 2016 Young Labour elections, and worked as Deputy Director of Operations on Jeremy Corbyn’s second leadership campaign. Now a leading figure in the Democratic Socialists of Your Party, Max focuses on socialist theory, organisation, and deepening democracy within the movement.

Solma Ahmed has worked in housing throughout her life. A passionate socialist, she is committed to building a fairer future. She served as Vice Chair of Harwich and North Essex, with responsibility for campaigns and the Labour Women’s Committee, before resigning from the Labour Party in 2023. She is now Interim Chair of Your Party North Essex and Vice Chair of Colchester Action for Palestine. She has consistently challenged injustice and inequality and, as a former executive member of Transform Party, helped build Your Party. As a CEC member, she aims to help shape a member-led, inclusive, accountable, and transparent organisation.