A new left-wing party has been formed with the hope of challenging Labour’s “dominance” in Ealing.
Named the Ealing Community Independents Party (ECIP), the new group says it plans to shake up what it describes as a “one-party borough”. Across 11 wards, 26 ECIP candidates are standing for election on 7 May 2026.
A spokesperson for the party told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “For decades, Ealing has been run as a Labour fiefdom, with residents locked out of decisions, local services stripped away under the cover of ‘austerity’, and communities treated as an electoral bank to be raided every four years. Ealing Community Independents exists to break that stranglehold and put power back in the hands of local people.”
The party says it has six core principles which it says were agreed with residents and campaigners from across the borough. These are:
Public services: a pledge of “no more austerity, cuts or privatisation” whilst investing in facilities such as children’s centres
- Community first: councillors who “answer to residents, not mainstream party whips”
- Housing for all: a pledge to resist overdevelopment whilst committing to building social housing
- Cleaner, greener borough: a commitment to address the climate emergency by funding home insulation and cleaner transport whilst tackling fly-tipping
- An ethical and responsible council: a policy of ensuring the council does not support companies in breaches of international law including by divesting from any pensions that may contribute to international conflict including in Palestine
- Equality and social justice: a firm commitment to anti-racism and tackling inequality
Craig Smith, leader of Ealing Community Independents, said: “Ealing has been run for far too long as a one-party stitch-up. Labour talks left at election time, then closes children’s centres, hands land to developers, raises council tax and tells residents to like it.
“Our 26 candidates are ordinary people from across the borough who have had enough of being ignored. From fighting school uniform costs that price out working-class families, to defending social housing and public services, to standing against Labour’s culture of secrecy – our candidates have already proven they will stand with residents.
“Now we are asking voters to give us the chance to do that work from inside the council chamber and break Labour’s stranglehold once and for all.”
The party presents itself as a “people-led” local party which commits to putting residents first. The new political outfit says its existence is to challenge “a council culture that answers upward to Westminster parties instead of outward to local people”.
The 26 Ealing Community Independent Party candidates include long-standing local community campaigners, school governors, trade unionists, renters, and “parents and workers who are tired of being told what’s good for them by a council that has forgotten who it works for”.
A spokesperson for the Ealing Labour Group said: “The Ealing Community Independents are hardly independent. Their candidates include people who were expelled from Labour Party, supporters of the far-left Socialist Workers Party, and have connections to the Communist Party of Great Britain.
“They should be honest about who they really are, and tell the truth about who they really represent, because it won’t be the residents of our borough. The Labour Party will be standing the most diverse and representative set of council candidates in every ward who represent the full diversity of our borough.
“Only Labour can stop the rise of Reform in Ealing, and will stand up for our residents against the extreme-right and the extreme-left.”
Craig Smith pushed back at Labour. He said: “Along with its abandoned principles, Labour has driven away much of its former membership and most of its electoral support. Progressive localists – those who align with the values of equality and social justice that Ealing Labour once believed in but has abandoned – are always welcome in Ealing Community Independents.”
