| Peter Taaffe | |
| Office: | General Secretary of the Socialist Party |
| Deputy: | Hannah Sell |
| Term Start: | 1997 |
| Term End: | 2020 |
| Successor: | Hannah Sell |
| Office1: | General Secretary of Militant Labour |
| Term Start1: | 1992 |
| Term End1: | 1997 |
| Office2: | General Secretary of Militant |
| Term Start2: | 1964 |
| Term End2: | 1992 |
| Predecessor2: | Position established |
| Birth Place: | Birkenhead, Cheshire, England |
| Party: | Socialist Party |
Peter Taaffe (born April 1942) is a British Marxist Trotskyist political activist and former leader of the Socialist Party.[1]
Taaffe was the founding editor of the Trotskyist Militant newspaper in 1964,[2] [3] and became known as a leading member of the entryist Militant group. Taaffe was expelled from the Labour Party in 1983, along with four other members of Militants editorial board.[4] [5]
Taaffe was influential in the policy decisions of Liverpool City Council of 1983–1987, according to the council's deputy leader Derek Hatton,[6] and in the formation of the Militant tendency's policy regarding the Poll Tax in 1988–1991.[7]
Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, one of six children of a sheet metal worker.[8] He was recruited to what would become the Militant tendency in 1960 by Ted Grant.[9]
In the four-year Liverpool struggle, Taaffe was closely involved with developments, discussing with close friends and leading Liverpool Militant supporters, such as the former print worker Tony Mulhearn.[10]