The NPN was established in December 1999 following the winding up of Democratic Left, the legal successor organisation to the former Communist Party of Great Britain.
[2] The NPN worked with a wide range of groups and individuals to provide a forum to look at emerging ideas in society.
With the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust it funded the tactical voting website Tacticalvoter.net during the 2001 general election,[3] although it was not involved with the 2005 campaign of the same name.
While it was predicted by Nick Cohen in the New Statesman in 2000 that NPN would merge with Make Votes Count and Charter 88,[2] Nina Temple among others attempted to steer the organisation back towards its democratic socialist roots at the 2003 AGM.
[2] In November 2007 the NPN, by then directed by Peter Facey, merged with Charter 88 to form a new campaigning group, Unlock Democracy.