A second MP has quit Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s party to return to serving as an independent MP, in yet another blow to the chaotic alliance.
Iqbal Mohamed said he was resigning from Your Party because of “false allegations and smears against me”. He had recently clashed with Ms Sultana over his gender-critical beliefs.
His departure comes 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.
Your Party has been riven by infighting and rifts almost since it was announced earlier this year.
But the loss of another MP, leaving just four, also comes just a week before the party’s first annual conference is due to get underway.
At the event, in Liverpool, members are expected to decide whether to adopt co-leaders, a proposal backed by Ms Sultana, whose relationship with some elements within the party has been fraught for months.
Earlier this week she rebuked Mr Mohamed over a series of gender-critical social media posts.
In them, he said: “White or brown men shouldn’t be telling or forcing biological women to give up their rights and private spaces to other biological men, black, white, brown or trans. What about the biological women’s rights? They have rights which I will always fight to protect. I also believe in the human rights of all trans and LGBTQ+ people but not by taking away the hard-won rights of women.”
In response, a spokesperson for Ms Sultana told The Telegraph: “Zarah will always stand with the trans community. She believes an ironclad commitment to trans rights is non-negotiable for a socialist party.”
In a statement announcing his departure, Mr Mohamed said: “After careful consideration, I have decided to leave Your Party and continue serving as I was elected as an independent member of parliament for Dewsbury & Batley.
“The many false allegations and smears made against me and others, and reported as fact without evidence, have been surprising and disappointing. However, I am confident that my colleagues and I have acted professionally, patiently, and in good faith throughout.”
Blackburn MP Mr Hussain said he had initially agreed to support the foundation of Your Party because he believed in “building a political home with mass appeal” and “a force capable of challenging the rise of far-right rhetoric”.
But in a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), he said he had been disillusioned by “persistent infighting, factional competition, and a struggle for power, position and influence rather than a shared commitment to the common good”.
In September, insiders told The Independent that “diplomatic efforts” were underway within the new left-wing group 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” amid a dispute over a new membership system.
Mr Mohamed’s departure is the latest blow for a party that has nonetheless built momentum, with more than 750,000 supporters reportedly signed up at one point.
Pollsters have also warned Labour that the new group poses a threat and could take a significant number of votes.
A Find Out Now poll 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.
Luke Tryl, from the organisation More in Common, told The Independent in August that the prospect of a new Corbyn-led party polled very well and “took 10 per cent of the vote, taking votes from Labour and the Greens”.
Leading pollster Professor Sir John Curtice also said Labour was “vulnerable to the left”, adding that the Greens were “taking votes off them in that direction” at the last election.
But at the same time, he added a note of caution, saying: “At the moment, I’m waiting to see whether Corbyn manages to get his act together and manages to create a political party that has some thoughts and organisation behind it.”
