“Does the Labour Party actually want to win the general election?” Communist Party chairman Bill Greenshields asked at the weekend.

Mr Greenshields pointed out that the Conservative Party conference had revealed what a Tory victory would inflict on the working class — “the wholesale destruction and privatisation of public services and the welfare state, perpetual war and the biggest attack on civil liberties and trade union rights for decades.”

Theresa May’s proposals to deal with “extremists” who do not break the law but challenge her interpretation of “democracy” represented a real danger, he warned.

But “the problem is that Labour’s response to these existential threats has ranged from feeble to non-existent” since shadow chancellor Ed Balls had imprisoned the party in a pro-austerity straitjacket.

Mr Greenshields told the CP executive that it was Labour’s “undeserved historic role” to defeat the Tories — but that the labour movement would need to force it to win next May.

Principled peace-lover to stand as Green next time

Highland MSP John Finnie — who quit the SNP two years ago over its decision to support Nato membership — has joined the Scottish Green Party, he announced at the weekend.

Mr Finnie will continue to sit as an independent MSP but plans to stand as a Green candidate in the Scottish Parliament election in May 2016.

Speaking to the Scottish Greens conference in Edinburgh on Saturday, John Finnie said: “I have no ill will towards the SNP, a substantial minority of whom voted with me to oppose Nato membership.”

Since the independence referendum less than a month ago, the Scottish Green Party has more than trebled its membership, now standing at some 6,300 people.