VOTERS will find a new party name on the ballot paper when they enter polling booths on May 6.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a new left-wing alliance which is running candidates across the country.

The party will be represented here by Clr Jackie Grunsell in Colne Valley and Paul Cooney in Huddersfield.

Clr Grunsell will also be defending the Kirklees Council seat of Crosland Moor and Netherton which she won in 2006.

She said: “As the name suggests, we’re a coalition of lots of different groups who have come together because we all agree there’s a lack of political representation for ordinary people, workers, trade unionists – your Joe Bloggs on the street.”

TUSC was formed in January with the backing of the National Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

In Huddersfield the coalition is made up of members of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and the debating group the Radical Action Network.

Clr Grunsell, who is a member of the Socialist Party, explained: “We want to create a new party but we’re not there yet. We still have our separate identities but we come together on the 90% we have in common.”

Clr Grunsell outlined the common ground between members.

“We need to protect public services, to defend jobs and trade union rights,” she said.

“We oppose privatisation and stand for nationalisation of the transport system, including trains and buses.”

Clr Grunsell is running for the Colne Valley Parliamentary seat – a three-way marginal which could be won by Labour, the Conservatives or the Lib Dems.

But she is unconcerned if votes for her end up costing Labour victory.

Clr Grunsell said: “I don’t think Labour is a left-wing party any more. They might have a handful of left-wing candidates running elsewhere in the country, but certainly not in the Colne Valley.

“We’ve seen Tory policies from this Labour government. Voting for any of the three main parties will be voting for the status quo.”

In Huddersfield TUSC will be represented by Paul Cooney, an NHS worker from Edgerton.

Along with Clr Grunsell, he will be drumming up support by speaking in Market Place at 12.30pm today.

He said: “We have to campaign in a different way because we don’t have the funds that other parties have. We’ll be holding rallies on the streets and knocking on doors. We’re also using new media to get our message across.”

Mr Cooney, who is being helped by around 25 activists during the campaign, has been a member of two other political parties in Huddersfield in the past.

He explained his political journey: “I came to Huddersfield in 1991 and joined the Labour Party. By 1997 I was chair of Paddock Labour Party but I left two months before the general election when Gordon Brown said he would stick to Tory spending plans.

“I saw that Labour was more interested in winning re-election than making radical change.”

In 2003 Mr Cooney joined the Greens.

He said: “I was quite impressed with a lot of Green policies – I’m still happy with some of them today.

“I was chosen as the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Huddersfield but I left the party six months later in 2008. I wasn’t impressed with the Greens forming alliances with conservative regimes in places like Ireland and Germany.

“At council level in England – including in Kirklees – they were forming coalitions with the Conservatives.”

Mr Cooney, who is a member of the Radical Action Network, hopes others will follow him in to TUSC.

He said: “There are many good people in the Greens and Labour and I would hope to get their support.”