Answer to a Correspondent: Are there Socialists in Parliament? (1931)

From the June 1931 issue of the Socialist Standard

A correspondent tells us that our reply last month to a question concerning the £150 election deposit gave the impression that there are Socialist M.P.’s already in Parliament. The reply was not ambiguous, and we think that no reader would have been left in any doubt provided that he read the whole of the reply. However, for the benefit of any readers who failed to understand that the reference was to Socialist M.P.’s who will be elected at some future date, we make the following statement. There are not now, and have not been at any time, in the Parliament of this country and at any time M.P.’s elected as Socialists on a Socialist programme. Some M.P.’s have on occasion described themselves as Socialists, but in every instance these individuals, whatever their party, have owed their election to non-Socialist votes deliberately solicited and received on a programme of capitalist reforms. This applies equally to the Labour Party, the I.L.P., the Social Democratic Party, and the Communist Party.

We hope we have now made onr meaning clear to our correspondent.