Bury communist called 'dangerous' ahead of 2024 General Election

Dan Ross, of the Communist Party of Britain, made the comments regarding the now-dissolved state while also claiming China is a "democracy", with Conservative candidate Arnie Saunders labelling these views as "dangerous".

In comments received by the Bury Times Mr Ross claimed regarding Chinese democracy: “It is by any real definition a democratic country.

“It has a very similar mechanism to what we have here and in many cases is actually more democratic.”

Mr Ross also claimed the world’s second-largest economy had a "plurality of parties".

The Communist party have been out campaigning (Image: Dan Ross)

Mr Saunders said in response: “I’m old enough to remember a time when the British Communist Party tried at least to pretend they weren’t endorsing everything that went on in Russia and China.

“China at the moment is of grave danger to the whole of the world in so many ways, and if you’re calling China democratic, just ask protesters in Hong Kong what they think of China’s democracy.

“I think he’s living in cloud cuckoo land.”

China is widely regarded as a single-party dictatorship with leaders decided via top officials without free and fair elections.

Freedom House, a not-for-profit advocacy organisation, ranks China’s "Freedom in the World" score at nine out of 100, branding its regime as "authoritarian" and "repressive".

The organisation also states power is monopolised by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and political competition isn’t allowed.

Speaking of the Soviet Union, Mr Ross, a former St Monica’s Secondary School pupil, believes the state achieved many successes and it too, was a democratic nation.

He added: “They actually achieved an awful lot.

“By 1991 the USSR was a superpower and it only took a generation for that country to be in space.”

Tory candidate, Mr Saunders, refuted these claims: “I would remind Mr Ross that the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, if it was that much of a success why did that happen?”

Bury-bred Mr Ross was formerly a Labour Party member before joining the Communist Party of Britain in 2021.

Mr Saunders with MP Richard Holden (Image: Conservative Party)

He became swayed by Marxist-Lenin policies after beginning to study them.

He added: “All we need to do is transform that private ownership model [the UK has] into a collectivised model and develop productive forces here, as China has been doing for the past 30 years.”

Mr Ross describes the events of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, Beijing - where estimates predict between hundreds to many thousands of student protesters died after Chinese authorities opened fire on them – as a “battle” between protesters and the Chinese army.

The CCP said in June 1989, 200 civilians and several dozen security personnel died.

However in 2017, it was revealed a diplomatic cable from the former ambassador of Britain to China, Sir Alan Donald, said 10,000 died during the events.

Mr Ross criticised former Bury South MP, Christian Wakeford, for defecting to Labour from the Tories in 2022, stating he is the "character of an MP that’s wrong with our system" and called the fact he was allowed to switch the floor "fundamentally undemocratic".

A spokesperson for Mr Wakeford said they "won’t dignify" Mr Ross’ comments with a response and described the comments regarding his defection as a "personal attack".