COMMUNIST candidates are entitled to feel proud of their electoral performance, the party’s election agent said yesterday after it attracted more than 1,000 votes across Britain.

The Communist Party of Britain scored a total of 1,230 votes in the nine constituencies it contested.

“Our comrades can be proud of what they have achieved,” national election agent Martin Levy said.

“While, for communists, it is plain that a fundamental change is essential, it is not easy to get that message across and win support for it in the current political climate.

“But our campaign was not principally about gaining votes. It was about raising awareness in the labour movement of the need not just to endorse alternative policies but to develop mass struggle for them.

“That is the position that we shall to continue to propagate in the coming period.”

Mr Levy added the strong campaigning has raised the party’s profile, gaining it respect and winning new friends and political contacts that will lay the basis for building a stronger Communist Party.