FERVERENT socialist Peter McNally holds a unique record among all of Worcester's General Election candidates - he's the only one to have been effectively booted out the Labour Party.

The 60-year-old train driver, who lives in Welland, near Malvern, admits he faces the toughest of battles in trying to upset the rest under the 'Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition' (TUSC) banner.

But it's a contest he's been preparing for, one way or the other, since the 1970s, where his left wing ideals led him to Labour in the first place.

After joining the party Mr McNally, who was born in Birmingham, landed a job working for radical former Coventry MP David Nellist.

Mr Nellist, a Trotskyist activist, was elected in 1983 and made headlines around the world for refusing to take his full parliamentary salary, slashing it 60 per cent to what he called a "skilled factory worker's wage".

The stance, which his local branch members backed, immediately set him apart from the other parliamentarians.

He was driven out of the party in 1991 after being de-selected and then expelled amid concerns, including those from Neil Kinnock, about his hard-left militant tendencies.

Amid the chaotic preparations for the crunch 1992 General Election, Mr Nellist then decided to stand under an 'independent Labour' banner but lost to Labour's new candidate, Jim Cunningham by just 1,351 votes after a bruising battle.

The fall-out led to party chiefs telling Mr McNally they'd have to launch an investigation into his role, leading to an inevitable parting of the ways after he was suspended and then quit.

These days, he's just surpassed 25 years working on the railways, including being a ticket inspector, guard and now train driver, a job which led to him moving from a village near Leamington to Welland in 2001, taking him close to his Worcester work base.

Having stood for council seats four times under the TUSC banner, this is his first stab at the parliamentary constituency, but it's a task he's relishing.

"We want to make a better world - working people have to really struggle to improve their lives," he says.

"I meet some good people in the Labour Party, but I don't recognise some of their policies, many of them are hardly different from the Tories.

"There's around 131 candidates standing around the country now, there's been a big, big effort because you've got to get over 100 to even start being noticed by the BBC, ITV and major print media.

"It would be great if we could stand in every constituency but that £500 cost is a challenge."

Mr McNally, who never went to university but has a social sciences degree from the Open University, says his party is about those old-fashioned, socialist values based on helping the working classes, rather than any centre-ground.

His views on austerity, and who he believes caused the 2009 recession, are strikingly clear.

"Austerity has not worked and I am against it - and it's only been austerity for the working classes," he says.

"British banks were lending money to people who could not pay it back, that's what happened.

"And then you've got politicians who basically represent rich people in boardrooms, the bankers and so on."

He says his early views on politics was formed by the oppressions of the 1970s, which led to him becoming concerned about the way the world was going.

"There was stuff going on like the Vietnam war that I didn't think was right, I was against the military coup in Chile and we still had military dictatorships in parts of Europe," he says.

But he isn't bitter about his departure from Labour, suggesting the party's modern incarnation would not have appealed anyway.

"In the end, when we had the Dave Nellist situation I concluded that they wanted us to still pay our subscriptions to the party and sit there, doing nothing while they did this 'investigation' which never actually happened," he said.

"There was this talk about 'infiltration' and when they put a stop to Dave being standing again they said they'd investigate me, but nothing came of it."

And he also says the goal is clear - to offer Worcester voters an anti-austerity alternative focused on the working people's lot.

That means re-distributing money from the rich to the poor, opposing any cuts to pay and working conditions for the public sector and an anti-privatisation agenda.

It also means better trade union rights and democratic public ownership of all major banks and companies - as well as no more wars.

"We're making a start and I have no idea how we will do but we're getting leaflets delivered by Royal Mail, we're doing canvassing, we're doing ok," he said.

"We'd have got only 20 or 30 candidates but a socialist passed away and left funding for us to get this many.

"It's about helping the working classes."

He also says the staff at his employers London Midland, have been supportive of his move.

"Traditionally people in the rail industry have generally been supportive of the Labour Party, but it's not the case completely," he says.