It proposes that socialism can be achieved in Britain by the working class leading various political forces in a popular democratic alliance[10] against monopoly capital, and implementing a left-wing programme of socialist construction.

Part of this strategy involves winning the labour movement with a left-wing position, through struggle in the existing democratic bodies of the working class, such as trades unions, trades union councils and tenants' associations.

When the CPGB's leadership abandoned The British Road to Socialism in 1985, elements in the party that remained loyal to the programme, including the then editorial board of The Morning Star, split to form the Communist Party of Britain in 1988.

The re-established party published the 6th edition of the programme in 1989, with a revision in 1992 to consider the onset of capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe.

Three subsequent editions have been produced with further revisions and a title change to Britain's Road to Socialism.