Whose Party?
- Mehmet Ege Öner
- 3 days ago
- 14 min read
The chaotic founding of the UK's Your Party
At the end of November 2025, the British political scene witnessed the inaugural conference of Your Party, the culmination of a turbulent episode for the British left beginning in July. Promising to be a grassroots socialist alternative to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's increasingly centrist Labour government, Your Party was initially greeted with widespread enthusiasm among the British left, who had begun feeling politically homeless since Starmer's overtures to the political right. However, since the announcement of a new left-wing party in July, Your Party has been marred by an extraordinary amount of drama and infighting among its leading figures. Now that it has been officially established, Your Party’s moves going forward will certainly be significant, especially at a time when the UK's political left and right are increasingly separating from their traditional parties of support.
The Background
The Labour Party's landslide victory in the 2024 General Election was initially cheered by the British left as the end of 14 years of rule by the Conservative Party, whose reputation by the end of their tenure had been tainted by a number of scandals and ineffective leadership. However, the usually robust relationship between the British left and the Labour Party turned sour after this transition into government.
In April 2020, following former leader Jeremy Corbyn's resignation, Keir Starmer was elected in his place. Although he had always moved to sideline left-wing voices in the party during his leadership, his recent hostility against left-wing policy in favor of a centrist approach was still a shock for many on the British left and even some Labour Parliamentarians.
Labour MPs have been facing threats of having their “whip removed” if they go against the government line, which means they would be suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and sit as independents until being reinstated. Although suspensions of this kind are usual practice for parliamentary parties to keep members in check, many believe that the procedure is being abused by Starmer to silence intra-party criticism of his government and party leadership.
A clear example of this occurred when the parliamentary agenda listed the repeal of the controversial two-child benefit cap, which was brought in by the Conservatives in 2017 to limit the number of children parents could claim benefits for. Seven Labour MPs defied Starmer’s line and voted for a motion to repeal the cap in July 2024, subsequently having their whips removed. In July 2025, four other MPs also got suspended for opposing a welfare reform bill. Diane Abbott MP, the first black woman to be elected to parliament and the longest-serving current female MP, had her whip removed on two separate occasions when she publicly remarked about inaction from party ranks regarding racist attacks targeted towards her. This heavy-handed approach to eradicating opposition within the party made it extremely difficult for left-wing organization to be accomplished, leading left-wing activists and party members to look outwards.
An important point of contention between the left and Starmer’s government was in responding to the seemingly inexorable rise of the right-wing populist Reform UK party. Capitalizing on the weakening of the Conservatives, rising anti-establishment sentiment, and culture wars; Nigel Farage's party had been on an upward trajectory in opinion polling since the 2024 general election, surpassing Labour in Spring of 2025 and growing their national support even further since.
Countering the rise of Reform, and most urgently preventing their possibility of entering government in the next general election, has been on the forefront of both Starmer's and the general British left's priorities. However, their approaches to tackling Reform so far have had far less common ground. Keir Starmer, for the most part, has perceivably imitated Reform's right-wing stance against immigration and civil liberties, abandoning the progressive stances he has previously espoused before taking power. This approach doesn’t seem to have curbed Reform’s polling rise, especially combined with Starmer’s inability to communicate his government’s achievements.
The left-wing, on the other hand, believe that the best way of reducing Reform's popularity is to offer an unapologetically leftist vision to voters, without watering down the socialist policy elements in their platform. Starmer's unwillingness to confront Reform's rhetoric, instead seemingly opting to mimic it with little popularity gain, added to the sense of necessity felt by the left to abandon their traditional political home and start anew with a clean slate.
The Announcement
All these grievances created fertile ground for a new vehicle that could claim a “pure” left-wing identity, free from the self-imposed constraints of Starmer's centrism. Indeed, there was palpable enthusiasm among the British left when, on July 3rd, Zarah Sultana, one of the seven Labour MPs suspended following the two-child benefit cap rebellion, abruptly announced on social media that she was resigning from the Labour Party and would be working with Jeremy Corbyn to found a new socialist political party. In her announcement, Sultana highlighted the perceived inadequacy of the British political system in dealing with poverty and inequality, alongside sharply criticizing Starmer's government for cuts to welfare, inability to combat Reform UK's rise in opinion polls, and complacency in the face of the ongoing war and genocide in Gaza, another point of frustration for the British left.
This Sultana has been viewed as a rising star within the Labour Party until her resignation, thanks to her savvy social media presence and her vocally unabashed left-wing stances. Leaving the Labour Party and announcing her ambitions to build a new party in collaboration with Corbyn, lent her credibility in posing a serious threat against Starmer's re-election chances.
Jeremy Corbyn, who had already formed the Independent Alliance parliamentary group with four other independent pro-Gaza MPs, confirmed that "discussions are ongoing" about co-founding a new party with Sultana shortly after the announcement. He also commended Sultana on her decision to resign and added that "the democratic foundations of the new kind of political party" would soon take shape.
A website was launched later in the month, where supporters could register for a mailing list to be involved in the new party's upcoming inaugural conference, the header reading "This is Your Party". Corbyn later claimed that more than two hundred thousand people signed up within the first day of the announcement. Within a week, the new party, by now dubbed “Your Party” by large parts of the press and the public, would boast more than six hundred thousand sign-ups. Several Labour and Scottish Green councillors would also defect from their parties to join the project not long after. This was the perfect start for Corbyn and Sultana to build the new party; the existence of tangible appetite for a party left of Starmer's Labour Party being proven and the project receiving significant backing in such a short time.
One Crisis After Another
The differences in personality and politics between Corbyn, Sultana, and the four independent MPs began to spill out into the public soon after the party's launch. The pro-Gaza Independent Alliance MPs, despite being part of the movement, did not all see eye-to-eye with Sultana on certain policy issues, resulting in public spats over social media.
The first of these came when Independent MP Adnan Hussain made statements on social media against trans rights, stating that he believes trans women should not be allowed into spaces for those assigned female at birth. Zarah Sultana responded to these posts saying that "Trans rights are human rights. Your Party will defend them - no ifs, no buts...".
Another spat emerged when Sultana criticized Corbyn's decision to adopt the IHRA's working definition of antisemitism, which conflates any criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism, as leader of the Labour Party in a 2018 video interview. Corbyn said in another interview that he didn't believe it was necessary to bring the issue up. Although these differences did not lead to any serious disagreements, they did make clear that the Independent Alliance members and Sultana weren’t homogenous, which would be further underscored in a more serious and public fight that would soon emerge.
In mid-September, Your Party newsletter recipients, having climbed by then to eight hundred thousand people, received an email with a link to a membership portal at the cost of £5 per month or £55 per year. Zarah Sultana began celebrating membership milestones on social media throughout the day as well. Hours after the portal's launch, however, Corbyn and the Independent Alliance released a message stating that the email was unauthorized, should be ignored, and any direct debits that may have been set up should be cancelled. More perplexingly, they added that legal advice was being taken.
Within less than an hour, Sultana released a statement in response. She said she had launched the portal in accordance with the party's roadmap after feeling sidelined by the Independent Alliance MPs. She stated she had been subjected to what she called a "sexist boys' club" and added that no other women have been allowed into the Working Group managing the party's operations. She further accused Corbyn ally Karie Murphy of trying to take financial control of the members' donations and clarified that the membership fees collected from the portal were all going to MOU Operations, the limited company which also received previous party donations until it could be officially registered with the electoral commission.
The Independent Alliance MPs responded to Sultana's claims, saying she had not been excluded from any discussions and the working group organizing the founding conference was gender balanced. They also clarified that neither Karie Murphy nor anybody else had control of party funds at any time. They included that they reported the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office and would be cooperating with them in full. In a later post, Sultana claimed that the statements made against her were defamatory and politically motivated attacks, leading her to contact specialist defamation lawyers.
This heated and public fight between the two leaders of the movement, over a seemingly small issue that could have been handled privately, no less, fully revealed the dysfunctional relationship between Corbyn and Sultana. Although the two would later reconcile, with no legal action taken and an official membership portal launched by the end of the month, Your Party's reputation as a potential electoral contender took a permanent hit. Left-of-Starmer political support instead began coalescing around Zack Polanski, who had been elected at the end of September to lead the Green Party on a left-wing populist platform.
Lead-Up to Conference
Throughout October, regional assemblies were held around the UK and preliminary founding documents were released. Members of Your Party could also propose amendments on these documents, which would be voted on during the party's inaugural conference, now scheduled for the 29th and 30th of November.
Although Sultana and Corbyn appeared to have mended ties following the membership portal incident, bumps in their working relationship remained throughout the lead-up to the founding conference. The biggest of these was the transfer of funds and data from MOU Operations Ltd to Your Party, which was registered on the 30th of September. Citing the confusing launch of the membership portal and the lack of goodwill from Corbyn and the Independent Alliance MPs, the directors of MOU Operations resigned, giving control of the company to the sole Your Party MP agreeing to take the responsibility: Zarah Sultana.
The directors claimed that despite attempting to give over control of the company to all six MPs involved in Your Party, the Independent Alliance MPs demanded only the funds and membership information held by the company without acquiring it in its entirety. The directors, who have been accused of holding supporters' funds to ransom, stated this would have come at direct cost to them while going against company law and data protection regulations. Sultana, now as the sole director of the company, took charge of transferring £800,000 of early donations and membership fees to Your Party.
Despite Sultana publicly agreeing to the transfer, figures in Jeremy Corbyn's camp of the party soon went on to accuse Sultana of holding up the funds despite publicly agreeing to the transfer. A spokesperson for Sultana rebuffed these claims, saying that conducting necessary due diligence is part of the process.
Adding further strain just weeks before the conference, two members of the Independent Alliance, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, announced that they were quitting Your Party, citing persistent infighting and Islamophobia. Both MPs were known to have had disagreements with Sultana over the party’s founding process, and their statements have been largely interpreted as blaming her for the party's volatility.
Witch Hunts at the Conference
The inaugural conference of Your Party took place in Liverpool on the 29th and 30th of November, with Corbyn and Sultana holding separate pre-conference events in the area the day before. In total, about 25,000 delegates out of the membership were chosen to attend the conference by a sortition system. However, some delegates were informed last minute that they were expelled from the conference and barred from entering the conference hall due to their association with other socialist parties, namely the Socialist Workers Party. Additionally, a Sultana staffer was denied entrance, although it was admitted later on that this was due to an error. In protest against the expulsions, Sultana announced she would be boycotting the first day of the conference and claimed the expulsions were "witch hunts" largely targeted against her supporters. She further rallied against "nameless and faceless bureaucrats" working to expel members without the consent of the wider membership.
A spokesperson responded by invoking the membership rules, in which it is stated that members of other parties registered with the Electoral Commission would not be allowed to seek dual membership. However, it has later come to light that the SWP was not registered as a political party.
The first day of the conference was therefore clouded by the fight over the status of dual members. Corbyn, who was present in the conference hall, said in his opening speech that there had been mistakes in the party's foundation and urged against factionalism. However, additional conference attendees were removed from the hall throughout the day. As such, discussions of these expulsions also dominated the day’s debates.
This first day largely involved debates and votes over the party's political statement, constitution, and name. The most important of these votes was about the leadership structure, over which Sultana and Corbyn had publicly taken differing views. Sultana initially favored a co-leadership model, likely with herself and Corbyn in charge. However, she put her support behind collective leadership when the delegates ended up facing a choice between that or a single leader, saying it offered maximum member democracy. Corbyn was known to back the single leadership model, likely hoping to become leader of the party. Sultana also indicated she would run in a leadership race if the single leader model was chosen.
The results of the vote were 51.6% to 48.4% in favor of the collective membership model, saving the party from a potentially explosive leadership battle between their two figureheads. Instead, the party is to be led by a sixteen-member Central Executive Committee made up entirely of lay members, which will decide on the management and strategy of the party going forward. Another win for Sultana was a vote approved 69.2% to 30.8% allowing members to have dual membership with a list of political groups to be ratified by the executive committee. Finally, "Your Party" was chosen as the party's official name with 37.06% out of four names set forward.
What Now?
Put against the wider backdrop of Keir Starmer's centrist Labour Party looking set to lose against Nigel Farage's resurgent right wing Reform UK, Your Party has had a particularly shaky and controversial founding process. Although it garnered immense support from the left wing of the British political spectrum in its initial announcement, the constant infighting between Corbyn and Sultana was widely perceived as off-putting and unprofessional by the public. A large segment of initial Your Party support shifted to the Green Party after Zack Polanski was elected leader not long after Your Party's mailing list was launched, leading commentators to question the party's viability of success.
Although many important decisions over the party's trajectory were made during the inaugural conference, a lot remains to be seen. For one, positions in the party's Central Executive Committee are yet to be filled. Although this process will largely involve local party chapters, the possibility of large-scale infighting and controversy cannot be ignored given the party's short history. The earliest litmus test for the party is likely to be the local council elections set to happen in May 2026, when their position as a true socialist alternative to Labour and the Greens will be assessed. Although Your Party’s electoral strategy remains undefined, both Corbyn and Sultana’s high public profiles and taste for publicity ensure their future moves will be worth watching.
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