Your Party will elect a new leadership by the end of February after co-founders Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana were barred from standing under new rules.
Members of the fledgling left-wing group will vote over the next two months, after they decided in November to put a “collective” headed by a non-MP in charge.
A second option, for a traditional sole leader, which would have seen Mr Corbyn and former Labour MP Ms Sultana battle it out to lead the new party, was rejected by a narrow margin.
The results will be announced on 26 February, Your Party said. But it will not have candidates in place for the local elections in May, and will instead support “community independents”. Members in Scotland and Wales will decide the party’s stance on the Holyrood and Senedd elections the same month, the party said.
The shock outcome of the leadership vote at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool came after some challenged Mr Corbyn, a lifelong pro-Palestine campaigner, and accused him of being a “Zionist”, apparently for supporting a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Members voted for the party to be led by a committee, which will include a chair and a deputy chair. MPs are not allowed to stand for the chair or deputy chair role.
In a new year message issued on Thursday, Mr Corbyn urged Your Party supporters to “embrace hope, not fear, and optimism for the year ahead”. He predicted that 2026 would be “the year we demonstrate a radical, socialist alternative to the right-wing demagogues and establishment mouthpieces who dominated 2025”.
He said he wished for “the voice of communities to come through loud and clear in the elections in May”, adding: “Your Party will back socialist and community independents who challenge the government and stand for council housing, community care and social services.”
Your Party has been riven by infighting and rifts almost since the new group was announced.
In an extraordinary move, Ms Sultana boycotted the first day of the party’s conference, accusing people within the organisation of creating a “toxic culture” and citing a “witch hunt”, just hours after Mr Corbyn insisted the party was united.
Even before the conference began, a second MP quit. Iqbal Mohamed said he was resigning because of “false allegations and smears” levelled against him. He had recently clashed with Ms Sultana over his gender-critical beliefs.
His departure came just one week after Adnan Hussain said he was withdrawing from the “steering process” for the new party, citing concerns about factionalism and “veiled prejudice” against Muslims.
Two months earlier, insiders told The Independent that “diplomatic efforts” were underway to try to heal divisions between Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana. It came after she complained she had been “subjected to … a sexist boys’ club” during a dispute over a new membership system.
Pollsters say the new group poses a threat to Labour and could take a significant number of votes from Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
A Find Out Now poll over the summer suggested that Your Party would be equal third to Labour in support, on 15 per cent each, with Reform on 34 per cent and the Tories on 17 per cent.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
