UK New Left Party May Be Splitting

Sept. 24, 2025

Don’t throw away historic opportunity for left

There is appetite for a radical and insurgent vision of the left

I don’t know about you, but I’m very angry. My anger is all the greater because it’s being diverted from its proper objects, such as Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage, Binyamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. It’s provoked by the absurd split that has exploded at the top of Your Party.

The weekend before last we had a brutal reminder of the way in which the crisis of the neoliberal order is creating huge openings for the far right. The fascist-organised mass demonstration in London on 13 September was fed by the decomposition of both the main political parties in Britain.

That same decomposition has also driven a much more welcome phenomenon—850,000 people signing up to the Your Party website since its launch in July.

Its co-founders, Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn, became the focus of the hopes of vast numbers of people looking for a progressive alternative to both the decaying neoliberal centre and the rising far right.

And now the two and the circles around them have been at public war, lawyering up against each other. All our hopes could be squandered. The Telegraph newspaper is gloating, “The collapse of Corbyn and Sultana’s Your Party is delicious.”

The tensions that have burst into the open were brewing for months before the Your Party launch. It’s no secret that Corbyn was extremely slow to respond as the Starmer leadership blocked him from standing for Labour in his Islington North seat in last year’s general election.

And then, when he did run independently, not simply did he win handsomely, but four other pro-Palestinian independents were elected too.

The logic of the situation, especially as the Labour government started to decay almost as soon as it was formed and Reform UK advanced in the polls, was to launch a national left alternative.

But Corbyn again dragged his feet. He was encouraged in this by a group around him who had previously worked in his office when he led the Labour Party in 2015-20—the Leader of the Opposition’s Office or Loto.

Many originated in the Unite union bureaucracy, and seem interested mainly in exercising control. The plans announced last week for formally establishing the new party involve selecting delegates by lottery and taking policy decisions by online votes. They seem designed to keep members passive, allowing the Loto clique to continue managing things. The real running was made by Sultana and a group of experienced activists around her. They pressed for a rapid launch of a new left party.

The differences are also political. Corbyn is aligned with the other Independent Alliance MPs. One, Adnan Hussain, wants the new party to have room for “social conservatism”, and has made it clear that he opposes trans+ rights. Sultana, like him a Muslim, by contrast told an overwhelmingly young, 1000-strong audience in south London, “Trans+ rights are human rights and we will defend them.”  

Sultana’s vision of a dynamic and democratic left party that fights oppression, not simply an election machine, has captured the imagination of tens of thousands. But she complains she has been “excluded completely” by “a sexist boys’ club”.

Both sides have made serious mistakes. For example, probably out of frustration at her treatment, Sultana launched a new membership portal without Corbyn’s agreement. The subs collected through this went to the proper Your Party account. Nevertheless, the logic of starting to sign up members on your own is to prepare for a split.

Sultana no doubt didn’t intend this. Nevertheless, she gave the Loto clique the opportunity they had been looking for to exclude her from the Your Party leadership.

But a new party without Sultana would be immeasurably weaker—as would one without Corbyn. Two rival parties would be even worse. Efforts to mediate between the two sides may be bearing fruit. More important, the rest of us must keep building Your Party.

We must also demand the two factions reach a compromise. History will not forgive them if they throw this opportunity away.

[Top photo: Over 1,000 join a Your Party launch in Brixton, south London]