A LEFT-wing political party set up by film director Ken Loach is launching a Teesside branch this week.

Left Unity was founded in 2013 by the director of Kes and Cathy Come Home as a new party of the left to replace the Labour party.

The party is holding its Teesside launch meeting on Thursday, July 16 with the party's national officer, socialist feminist Terry Conway, as guest speaker.

Since its launch, Left Unity has recruited 2,000 members and established 70 local branches, and fielded ten candidates in the May 2015 general election.

Its manifesto includes radical social transformation, including an immediate £10 an hour minimum wage, a welfare system based on the principle of universal benefits, greater investment in housing and health, public ownership of utilities, transport and banks, and an end to the privatisation of public services.

Stockton-based LU member Adam Thorn said:: "Left Unity.. is socialist, feminist, environmentalist, anti-racist and against all forms of discrimination.

"Locally, Left Unity members have been active in movements fighting for social justice and opposing austerity cuts, such as the People's Assembly.

"Now we feel the time is right to launch a local branch of our party. The meeting on 16 July is open to non-members and we invite all who wish to see a genuinely anti-capitalist alternative to come along and debate the way forward."

The launch event will be held on Thursday 16 July at 7.15pm in St Mary's Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW.