Monty Panesar, the former English cricketer, has been revealed as one of dozens of candidates for the Workers Party of Britain in the upcoming general election. The party, founded by Rochdale MP George Galloway, reportedly has plans to field around 500 candidates overall. Panesar, who helped win the 2009 Ashes tournament, hopes to overturn Labour’s Virendra Sharma’s 16,000 majority in Ealing Southall, West London.
Speaking in Parliament Square, Panesar said that he was impressed by the Workers Party’s policies, including plans for a wealth tax to fund the NHS. He added that he hoped to play cricket “with a straight bat” in his political career. Panesar’s candidacy was announced by Galloway, who declined to name three Labour MPs and one Labour peer currently considering defecting to the fledgling group.
Galloway, who became the party’s first MP in February after winning a Rochdale by-election, categorised Labour as the party’s primary opponent, stating that Workers Party could have a similar impact on Labour that UKIP and the Reform Party could have on the Conservatives. The Workers Party would not stand against former Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott should they stand as independents.
The party is planning to campaign hard to unseat leading Labour politicians, including deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy. If a general election is not called until the autumn, Galloway claimed that the Workers Party would have candidates in almost every parliamentary constituency. Former UKIP MEP Amjad Bashir and former ambassadors Peter Ford and Craig Murray were also unveiled as Workers Party candidates
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