Respect Party - Composition

Composition

The party was originally launched by The Guardian journalist George Monbiot and Birmingham Stop the War Coalition chair Salma Yaqoob. The initial idea to form Respect arose in a Bangladeshi family house in Tower Hamlets. Respect allows its members to hold membership of other political organisations. The coalition has the support of:

• Members of the Muslim Association of Britain and Muslim Council of Britain.
• The Socialist Unity Network.
• The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) RCPB(ML).
• People of no other political organisation.

Notable members involved since the party's foundation include:

• George Galloway, Respect's first Member of Parliament.
• Salma Yaqoob.
• Ken Loach, the film director, who is an elected member of its national council.
• Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The coalition had the support of The National Council of the Socialist Alliance, until the Alliance dissolved. Before the 2007 split, it included the Socialist Workers Party.

The media often present George Galloway as the party leader, but according to the party constitution, Respect does not have a leader as such and is run by an elected "national council". The party website and register of political parties lists the leader of Respect as Salma Yaqoob (previous leaders are Linda Smith and Nick Wrack).

In its 2006 accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, the party noted it had three paid employees, including John Rees and 5,739 registered members on 31 December 2006 (2005: 5,674). It has 42 branches (2005: 25) and had a total income of £273,023 and expenditure of £228,100.