Red Front (UK)

Red Front was a socialist electoral coalition in the United Kingdom which stood fourteen candidates in the 1987 general election.^[1]

Its main component was the Revolutionary Communist Party of Frank Furedi, while it also attracted the support of the tiny Revolutionary Democratic Group, Red Action and a few independents. The RCP was hugely optimistic about its potential and spoke of it in time replacing the Labour Party as the main left wing force in British politics.^{[citation needed]} However, Red Front candidates shared only 3,177 votes in total and as a result it was abandoned shortly after the election.

Election results

General election 11 June 1987

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	%	Position
Birmingham Sparkbrook	Pervaiz Khan	229	0.7	5
Bristol South	Carol Margaret Meghji	149	0.3	5
Glasgow Central	Derek Owen	126	0.4	7
Hackney North and Stoke Newington	Yasmini Train Anwar	228	0.6	5
Hammersmith	P. John Francis Fitzpatrick	125	0.4	5
Holborn and St. Pancras	Michael James Gavan	300	0.7	4
Knowsley North	David Hallsworth	538	1.4	4
Manchester Gorton	Miss Pam Lawrence	253	0.6	4
Manchester Wythenshawe	Miss Susan Connelly	216	0.5	4
Newcastle upon Tyne Central	Kirk Williams	111	0.2	5
Nottingham East	Kenan Malik	212	0.5	4
Pontefract and Castleford	Daniel McFarlane Lees	295	0.6	4
Sheffield Central	Ceri Teresa Dingle	278	0.7	4
Vauxhall	Kunle Oluremi	117	0.3	6

Bibliography

• Revolutionary Communist Party (1 February 1987). The Red Front: A Platform for Working Class Unity. London: Junius Publications. ISBN 978-0948392061.
• Smith, Evan (21 November 2022). "A Platform for Working Class Unity? The Revolutionary Communist Party's The Red Front and the pre-history of Living Marxism/Spiked Online in the 1980s". Contemporary British History. 37. Informa UK Limited: 89–127. doi:10.1080/13619462.2022.2142780. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 253791729.

References

1. "Election 87: 2,327 seek your vote". The Times. 9 June 1987.