emerge. The SSP started the process of mounting an SSP challenge in that election in November, while remaining "open to discussions" on a formal alliance until December. The SSP stood four candidates at the election on a manifesto pledging to introduce a £10 minimum wage, ban zero hour contracts, nationalise the energy industry – including oil and gas fields – and end austerity. Following the party's failure to make a breakthrough at that election, the SSP's annual conference voted "to begin negotiations with other socialists about presenting an electoral alliance for 2016". By August, the party announced it would field candidates as part of RISE – Scotland's Left Alliance. SSP spokesman Colin Fox secured the support of former SNP depute leader Jim Sillars, who told The National: "If Colin Fox is on the list for Rise, I will be voting and supporting Colin Fox on the list system." RISE also failed to win any seats in the Scottish Parliament. The SSP's subsequent conference in June 2016 passed a motion which "recommends the SSP re-evaluates our relationship with RISE to find a sustainable role for left unity going forward", while asserting that the party's priority over the coming year "must be to grow the influence and authority of the SSP itself". The party did not stand at either the 2017 snap general election or the following 2019 snap general election. For the first time since devolution the SSP also did not contest the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, either on their own or as part of a wider alliance. 2022 The SSP stood candidates in the 2022 Scottish local elections. On 4 April 2022, the party launched its manifesto for the election. One of the core policies of the campaign is a plan to scrap council tax and replace it with an income-based alternative. The party claims the plan "not only shifts the burden of council funding from poor and average earners to the better-off, but generates an extra £2 billion for hard-pressed council services." The party's candidates have pledged to oppose all cuts to public services. Other commitments include demanding that 100,000 new homes for rent are built in the public sector in Scotland, demanding energy firms are returned to public ownership, demanding the restoration of the £20-a-week cut for Universal Credit recipients and that its councillors will campaign for a national minimum wage of £12 an hour. National co-spokesperson for