Getting to vote for the first time should be an exciting experience for a politics student, but not for me in 2024. Filling out a postal vote in the Labour safe seat of Rawmarsh and Conisbrough brought me no enthusiasm as to who I could positively vote for. Inevitably, it went to the Greens, placing fourth on 5% of the vote. In the months after the landslide majority won by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, my domestic political interest began to wane as the Government proved its ‘change’ would be a continuation of the past 15 years of austerity.
However, it was in July that the then whip-withdrawn Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced her resignation from the party, and her intention to co-lead a new left party alongside the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Having seen Sultana’s staunch opposition to some of the government’s worst measures, I was both inspired and hopeful. However, it was almost immediately after her announcement that signs of tension began to show…
Due to Corbyn not publishing a statement at the same time as Sultana, rumours began to grow of a misalignment among the party’s founders, made worse by a source close to Corbyn stating that he “wasn’t pleased” at Sultana “jumping the gun”. This situation was somewhat saved by Corbyn posting a statement shortly after that he was excited that Sultana would help “build a real alternative”. Then came the mass success of the launch under the provisional name ‘Your Party’, with the number of mailing list sign-ups totalling 8000,000 as of 28 August 2025.
The two proposed co-leaders of ‘Your Party’, Jeremy Corbyn (Labour leader between 2015-2020) and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana.
The positivity would not last for long, however, as then came yet more disagreements and confusion. First, it was Adnan Hussain, a member of the Independent Alliance alongside Corbyn and Sultana, who publicly agreed with an X post stating that ‘Your Party’ shouldn’t, “parrot the same neoliberal idea of gender ideology”. Sultana was quick to indirectly call out this action stating, “trans rights are human rights…and I won’t let anyone get in the way of this fight.” Then, it was the launch of the membership portal by Sultana, which received 22,000 sign-ups, but was later denounced by Corbyn, who told new members to cancel direct-debits and that legal action was being taken. Then came the most damning development – Sultana stated that she had been “sidelined” and the party was being run as a “sexist boys’ club”. After, when things looked to maybe stabilise through the second attempt to launch the membership portal by Corbyn’s faction, the announcement was made that the inaugural party conference, scheduled for the end of November, would be held at the ACC in Liverpool. However, not even this went smoothly as the venue informed Sky News that it had no knowledge of any booking for the conference.
The future of the party: still up in the air. Despite Sultana sharing that she had become a member, it is still unclear whether this is a de-escalation or an intention to compete for the leadership. With all this being said, the hopes of left-wing voters in the UK will be somewhat dampened at this moment. There is still plenty of time before the 2026 local elections for the party to formalise, as well as hopefully pick a name and a leader so that we can start to see what the competition might be in the run-up to 2029.
However, at this moment, my hope is firmly placed in the newly elected Green leader, Zack Polanski, who confidently and assertively advocates for similar policies to those of ‘Your Party’, but through an organisation with stronger foundations and much greater stability. One thing is for sure -this is the last thing the left needs in a time of a rising far-right Reform in the polls and no powerful vehicle in opposition. We can only hope that in the next four years, an effective counter to the rightward swing can be proposed to give some hope to those who know what happens to a heavily scrutinised left-wing party.
