Michael Lavalette

Academic career and social work activism In the 2000s, along with Chris Jones, Iain Feguson, and Laura Penketh, he was an author of the Social Work manifesto for a new engaged practice and organiser of the Liverpool and Glasgow conferences of the Social Work Action Network (SWAN), and sought to oppose managerialism and privatisation within the social work profession, and to promote social work practice based on principles of social justice. At the end of 2008 the SWAN ran a campaign defending social workers in the aftermath of the Baby P tragedy. During the COVID pandemic, Lavalette was instrumental in setting up Social Work Action Network International (SWANI) to bring activist groups together from across the globe.

He is the author, joint author or editor of 30 books and pamphlets.

In March 2021 he was awarded Honorary membership of the in recognition of his writing on, and activism with, Palestinian groups in Britain and the West Bank.

Alongside fellow left-wing academic Iain Ferguson he was the founding editor of the academic social work journal Critical and Radical Social Work, published by Bristol University Press. He retired from the editorship in November 2025 after 14 years in the role. where the group were the last ever international group to meet President Yasser Arafat.

He was first elected to Preston council as a Socialist Alliance candidate shortly after the Iraq War began in 2003. In 2007, he was re-elected, this time standing for the Respect Party. In the Respect split in 2007 he remained loyal to the SWP and broke with George Galloway. In 2007, he was part of a campaign against academy schools in Preston. In December 2010, Lavalette proposed a motion to Preston City Council calling for opposition to cuts, job losses and privatisations. The motion had the backing of the local trades council and of Preston Against Cuts. Five Labour councillors had voted and spoken in favour of this motion at these meetings. Socialist Worker reported that when it came to the full council meeting however, all the Labour councillors voted against this motion, and for an amendment supporting 'fairer' cuts backed by the Liberals and Tories.

He held his seat until May 2011, in which he stood for Preston Independent Socialists Against the Cuts, losing the seat to Labour. He was re-elected in 2012 as an independent socialist, backed by the SWP.

In March 2018 he left the SWP and joined the revolutionary socialist organisation Counterfire.

He was active in opposition to Israel's actions in the Gaza war.

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, he stood in Preston as an independent on a pro-Palestine ticket, supported by Counterfire, During the campaign, he declined to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization, stating that "when your land is occupied ... people have the right to resist", comparing Hamas' "resistance" to that of the French Resistance during World War II. Lavalette said that, while he did not support any one group himself, "the Palestinians have always been heroic in their right to resist the colonialisation of the their lands".

In January 2025, he alleged that he was "assaulted by a Zionist provocateur" but the police did not act on his complaint. The seven joined a further four Greens to form a grouping, Progressive Lancashire, led by Azhar Ali, that became the official opposition group on the council.

In July 2025 Lavalette was questioned under caution by police over potential Public Order Act offences for a social media post in which he said "There is only one solution: Intifada, Revolution" alongside video footage from a pro-Palestine demonstration held in London. He told a social work website: "In my police interview, I also quoted a number of academic sources, which show that 'intifada' means a 'shaking off' of structures of oppression". The police later confirmed no action was to be taken and he faced no charges.

In Summer 2025, he joined Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's Your Party, along with fellow Lancashire County Councillors Almas Razakazi and Yousuf Motala. It was reported that he was banned from the first Your Party conference in November 2025 for allegedly being a member of both Your Party and the SWP. A Your Party source told the New Statesman that he was allowed to attend after speaking with the event organisers.

He is standing in the Your Party CEC elections in 2026 as a Public Officer.

Electoral history 2003 Local Election Lavalette stood in the Preston City Council Elections: Town Centre Ward 2003 as a Socialist Alliance Against the War candidate. George Galloway was alleged to have backed Michael Lavalette in this election, which was one of the charges that led to George Galloway being expelled from the Labour Party. He came first with 546 votes, 37.81%, unseating the Labour Party, whose candidate Musa Ahmed Jiwa came second with 440 votes. The turnout was 1,444 (28%).

2004 European Election In 2004 he was the lead candidate in the Respect list for the 2004 European Election in the North West England region. Respect came ninth, with 24,636 votes (1.2%) and none of its candidates were elected.

2005 General Election In the 2005 United Kingdom general election, he stood as a Respect candidate in Preston coming fourth with 2,318 votes, 6.8% of the vote, saving his deposit. Labour's Mark Hendrick won with 17,210 votes (50.5%).

2007 Local Election Lavalette kept his council seat, Preston Town Centre, with 1179 votes (more than 52%) increasing his majority by over 19%.

2011 Local Election In May 2011 he lost his seat to Labour. He stood as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate because the SWP had left Respect in 2007 and since joined TUSC.

2012 Local Election Lavalette successfully stood as an independent in 2012, again in Town Centre ward.

2024 general election In March 2024, Blog Preston and Counterfire reported that Lavalette would stand as an independent candidate for Preston in the next general election as a part of the No Ceasefire, No Vote movement.

At election hustings organised by the local press in June 2024, candidates were asked if he would denounce Hamas "as a terrorist organisation", he answered no; asked whether he would instead denounce the actions of Hamas on 7 October 2023, he again said no: "You had the right to resist in the Second World War and the French Resistance [and also] the Yugoslav resistance, the Italian resistance, the Greek resistance – and the Palestinians have the right to fight against their own dispossession... history did not start on [7 October]". He referred to attacks on Palestinians, including one in Huwara in 2023 in which he said people were "burnt out [of] their homes": "There’s a context to all this."

2025 Lancashire County Council Election 2025

In May 2025 Lavalette stood as one of four Preston Independent candidates.

Published works

The Forgotten Workforce: Scottish Children at Work (1991) (Glasgow, Scottish Low Pay Unit) Child employment in the capitalist labour market (1994) (Aldershot, Ashgate) Solidarity on the waterfront: the Liverpool lock out of 1995/96 (with Jane Kennedy) (1996) (Liverpool, Liver Press) Social policy: a conceptual and theoretical introduction (edited with Alan Pratt) (1996) (London, Sage) Anti-racism and social welfare (edited with Laura Penketh and Chris Jones) (1998) (Aldershot, Ashgate) A thing of the past?: child labour in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (editor) (1999) (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press) Child labor: a world history companion (with Sandy Hobbs and Jim McKechnie) (1999) (New York, ABC-CLIO) Class struggle and social welfare (edited with Gerry Mooney) (2000) (London, Routledge) Social Policy: A conceptual and theoretical introduction (second edition) (Edited with Alan Pratt) (2001) (London, Sage) Leadership and social movements (edited with Colin Barker and Alan Johnson) (Manchester, MUP) (2001) Rethinking social welfare: a critical perspective (with Iain Ferguson and Gerry Mooney) (2002) (London, Sage) Children, welfare and the state (edited with Barry Goldson and Jim McKechnie) (2002) (London, Sage) Globalisation, global justice and social work (edited with Iain Ferguson and Elizabeth Whitmore) (2005) (London, Sage) Social Policy: Theories, concepts and issues (Third Edition) (Edited with Alan Pratt) (2006) (London, Sage) George Lansbury and the rebel councillors of Poplar (foreword by George Galloway) (2006) (London, Bookmarks) International Social Work and the Radical Tradition (edited with Iain Ferguson) (2007) (Birmingham, Venture Press) Social Work After Baby P: Issues debates and Alternative Perspectives(Edited with Iain Ferguson) (2009) (Liverpool, Liverpool Hope University Press) Radical Social Work Today (Editor) (2011) (Bristol, Policy Press) Social Work in Extremis (edited with Vassilios Ioakimidis) (2011) (Bristol, Policy Press) Voices From the West Bank (with Chris Jones) (2011) (London, Bookmarks) Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play (editor) (2013) (London, Bookmarks) “Race, Racism and Social Work” (edited with Laura Penketh)(2014) (Policy Press, Bristol) “Marketisation and the Crisis in Adult Social Care” (with I. Ferguson)(2014) (Bristol, Policy Press) “Mark our words – we will rise: Episodes in Preston’s Radical history” (edited with P. Marsden)(2014) (Preston PSHG)| “Schools Out! The hidden history of school student strikes in Britain” (with S. Cunningham)(2016) (London, Bookmarks) “Global Social Work in Political Context” (with I. Ferguson and V. Ioakimidis)(2018) (Bristol, Policy Press) “What is the future of social work?” (Editor)(2019)(Bristol Policy Press) “Social Work and Covid19” (with I. Ferguson and V. Ioakimidis) (2020) (Bristol Policy Press) “Palestinian Cultures of Resistance” (2021)(London, Redwords)