Independent readers are deeply divided on the future of Your Party after the latest row threatened to further destabilise the fledgling party.
Jeremy Corbyn is seeking legal advice after co-leader Zarah Sultana sent an “unauthorised email” from Your Party’s account, inviting its supporters to become paid members.
It is the latest chapter in a public spat between the co-leaders, which began when the new venture was originally announced by Sultana, who said in July she was quitting the Labour Party to co-found the new venture with Corbyn.
While some expressed sympathy for Sultana, praising her initiative and frustration at what she called a “sexist boys’ club”, others argued her unilateral action showed she was a liability and too ambitious to be a team player.
Several readers said the spat had already undermined confidence in the fledgling movement, with one warning it risked being “strangled at birth”.
A number of commenters who have signed up to Your Party criticised the handling of membership fees, with some reporting difficulty cancelling payments and warning that their trust had already been broken.
For these readers, Sultana’s move looked like poor organisation and a power grab that could sink the project.
Others, however, dismissed the row as “hullabaloo” and said they were glad to see action being taken, arguing that new parties inevitably face teething problems.
Some insisted the left urgently needs an alternative to Labour, warning that without a strong challenge, Nigel Farage could capitalise on disillusionment.
Overall, readers were divided, torn between excitement at the promise of a grassroots socialist party and frustration at the chaos of its early days.
Here’s what you had to say:
Three strikes and you’re out
Three times now that Sultana has done this. Firstly, she announced the new party months before its launch. Then she had the public berating of Corbyn over being too soft on the AS smears and now this. It’s clear she wants to be leader, but may have killed it off before it’s even started. I paid £2.50 for the concessionary monthly, to see how it went, and would have either stayed and paid the annual membership (£25 for concessions) after it was founded depending upon rules and policies, or I would have quit, not losing much.
But had to spend 20 minutes on the phone to cancel. My bank revealed that they had many calls on the same thing, with many paying £55 (full rate). Luckily mine hadn’t gone through and was pending so it’s been stopped along with future payments.
After this latest debacle, I’m out. And they’ll have to get themselves sorted if they even want me to consider voting for them. But the Greens have a new leader and they may get my vote instead.
LadyCrumpsall
What do you think – was Zarah Sultana right to go it alone, or has she damaged Your Party before it’s even begun? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
We must have a new compassionate socialist party
I had an email this morning asking me to sign up for £55. I was on the point of paying up then I thought that something didn’t feel right about the email. At that point I hesitated until I worked out what was not right. I am pleased that I did.
The important thing is that we must have a new compassionate socialist party in the UK, and that Starmer’s party must be kicked out.
PeterLoud3
A vote for Your Party isn’t a vote for anything
Given that this party is quite likely to sink Labour at the next election, just as surely as Reform sank the Conservatives at the last, many might think that maybe Jeremy Corbyn sees it more as a ticket back into the Labour Party leadership, because why would he want to do that to the party he once led?
Simple, because quite apart from anything else, he’s only lost general elections, and wouldn’t be touched by them, especially if Angela Rayner was Labour’s leader, because why would she want him back in the fold, let alone move over for him, especially if this is what he is really like?
It goes without saying that Sir Keir Starmer wouldn’t have him back.
A vote for Your Party isn’t a vote for anything. It’s a vote against Labour, and against the left, to help a man who has been publicly rejected and humiliated prove a personal point, but millions of voters will still do it.
ppundit
There may be other splits to come
If you look at the members of Corbyn’s “Independence Alliance” I think you can see why Sultana has called them a sexist boys’ club. One thing we know is that they voted against private schools paying VAT, which is a bit odd if they are socialists (Corbyn abstained).
This split partly involves control of the membership money. There may be other splits to come.
RegCostello
We are doomed
The party that wins the next election will be the one that draws the widest spread of opinions together into a single disciplined entity. That means all members accepting that some issues will not be handled in the way we would prefer.
Unfortunately in a world of social media, AI-amplified half-truths and an online life lived in blinkered micro-bubbles, we the electorate are going in the opposite direction, towards smaller and smaller issue-specific groups.
And so the door is willingly opened by us to those who really shouldn’t be in charge in any scenario. We are doomed.
TrueScunthorpe
A Farage hissy fit
Beginning to resemble Nigel Farage’s hissy fit that led to Rupert Lowe being ejected from Reform.
I thought it very strange from the beginning that Sultana jumped the gun and announced that she and Corbyn were starting a new party prematurely instead of doing so in a coherent joint press conference.
Just as there are a number of parties fighting viciously over who can be more anti-immigrant on the right there are a number of parties and factions on the left that are continually challenging each other to “handbags at dawn” duels.
CanPeopleReallyBeThisStupid
A communist future
Just think, this man could have been our PM just a few years ago.
By now, we would have had 20 million migrants instead of 3 million, inflation would be running at 100 per cent, one pound would be worth about 13 cents, the country would have been paralysed by non-stop strikes, and national debt would be hitting 5x GDP. But the NHS – now stuffed to the brim with DEI commissars – would be even more the “envy” of the world than it is now. We might also have a 3-day working week, although this mostly due to power cuts, not socialist thinking.
As it stands, we are on our way to a similar communist future, but fortunately in a much slower way. Pray no leftist assassinates Farage before he can reverse the ship.
MooreCLanes
Good on Zarah for standing on her own
I’ve joined as a member and paid up. I don’t care about what’s being said. It’s all hullabaloo. Don’t care if Jezza and Zarah have disagreed on the timing of the email. I’m glad it’s out now. Good on Zarah for standing on her own and getting something done! People will be quick to jump on the bandwagon to say “look how bad it is already” but it’s a brand new party. Something had to go awry, so get it out of the way and get this party started!
Daggerz
She is a liability
I think she is a liability, sadly, because this isn’t the first time she has just gone ahead unilaterally and done something fundamental – like launch the party – without telling Corbyn. She doesn’t appear to be a team player but one who wants to take all the decisions without consulting her colleagues.
LizzieM
Hopes for hung parliament
I really wanted this new party to succeed, but it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be strangled at birth. I’m 65 now, and time is running out for a real change in my lifetime. I just hope that at the next election, voters split to such an extent that we have a hung parliament, and can push through PR. My expectations are low, based on experience.
bloodwort
Collegiate?
Ye gods Zarah. I thought that the new party was supposed to be collegiate. That means that off piste announcements and actions are unacceptable.
PinkoRadical
Your Party needs to get its act together
If this story’s true Your Party needs to get its act together.
We currently have an incompetent “Labour” government – so far to the right that the Conservatives would have been to the left of it a few decades ago.
There HAS to be serious opposition to this – or Farage will walk it to No. 10. We already have the Green Party, in Scotland the SNP, and in Wales Plaid Cymru. But Britain also definitively needs an explicitly left-wing party to oppose Starmer, and in so doing stop Farage from becoming Prime Minister.
FoodForThought
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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