The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is a Trotskyist group established in the 1940s as 'The Club', a faction of the Revolutionary Communist Party advocating for entryist tactics in the Labour Party and trade unions. It became the Socialist Labour League in 1959 before changing its name to the WRP in 1973. The WRP still exists and publishes its daily paper, The News Line, online.
The party was infiltrated by HN303 'Peter Collins' and HN298' Michael Scott' between 1973 and 1976, although there is also some SDS reporting after this. Two former members of the party, Liz Leicester and playwright Roy Battersby , gave evidence to the Inquiry. This included Battersby's account of being blacklisted due to his work for the WRP.
Spearheaded by Gerry Healy and John Lawrence, WRP advocated 'entryist' tactics in the British Labour Party and trade unions. The WRP also published literature such as internal bulletins that amounted to book-length discussions of Marxist and communist dogma. It also published a magazine titled The Workers Press, which later changed its name to News Digest and then to Daily Newsline.
The party also had a chain of five bookshops and five youth training centres involving young people and a film production business. The WRP counted among their members many who were involved in the arts, most famously actor Vanessa Redgrave (now Dame Vanessa Redgrave) and her brother Corin. In 1973, one of these centres, 'The White House', was raided by police, reports by HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ report on the impact of this on the party’s security measures.
Much later, in 1985, Gerry Healy, one of the founders, was expelled from the party following allegations of sexual abuse.
Sources
Workers Revolutionary Party website.