The Mayoral Alliance
The Mayoral Alliance was formed to campaign once the referendum had been triggered for a directly-elected mayor and we became known as the "YES" team.
A directly-elected mayor system of local government is a system of local government that I have passionately supported since its introduction and my enthusiasm for the system is probably attributed to Ken Livinstone, the ex-London Mayor who I thought did a fantastic job for London.
Myself on behalf of The Community Action Party was approached by independants and The English Democrats NW to ascertain my views on the system and in view of Salford's problems I had no hesitation in believing the system would be best for our city.
Therefore, The Mayoral Alliance was formed which was made up of The English Democrats NW, The Community Action Party and the petition organiser. We formed the "YES" team and we all had one common goal which was to achieve a "YES" vote.
The Community Action Party and The English Democrats are two very different political parties.
My party is anti-racist, anti-discrimination, anti-prejudice, for tolerance and for supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in society.
The English Democrats are widely known to be on the far right of british politics. Therefore, the two parties views are completely different.
However, to my parties credit they allowed me to work with others in the interests of our city to bring about democratic change in the city.
The city returned a YES vote and our goal had been accomplished.
Even though The English Democrats were at the forefront of the media campaign, The Community Action Party through myself allowed this to occur. This does not mean that The Community Action Party were not equal partners in the campaign.
In fact, un be known to most, our party actually contributed to the campaign to return a YES vote was greater than The English Democrat Party.
The Community Action Party worked tirelessly and extremely hard delivering tens of thousands of leaflets all over the city which was nowhere near matched by The English Democrats.
I allowed The English Democrats to be at the forefront of the media campaign because I understood that any messages to the electorate had to be consistent and they were keen to take the media limelight and I had no problem with this. My party supported my decision and I maintain this was a correct tactic to use to be consistent in our campaign to achieve a YES vote.
We succeeded.
I am in no doubt without the endeavours of our party the result may have been different.
In achieving a YES vote due to the success that was achieved negotiations did commence as to how to take forward any Mayoral Alliance.
The Community Action Party have ratified my nomination as a Mayoral candidate in the event I decide to accept the offer.
My party made it clear that under no circumstances would we support in any Mayoral Alliance an English Democrat candidate due to their known extremism in the United Kingdom.
It became clear to us that The English Democrats were trying to seize any initiative they had gained through media publicity that was created for their party, by trying to impose an English Democrat on the Mayoral Alliance as a disguise because of their far-right racist ideology.
When it became clear to our party and myself that this was the case I immediately terminated the arrangement and my party have supported the decision fully.