Six years ago, Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to deal with accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party helped fell his leadership. His response to the 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission report into how the party dealt with these charges was deemed so inadequate by Keir Starmer that he exiled Corbyn from Labour.
To Zarah Sultana, the independent (but former Labour) MP, who is co-founding a new left-wing party alongside Corbyn, the former Labour leader’s response was too soft. Corbynism “capitulated to the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of anti-Semitism”, she told the New Left Review (in a wide-ranging interview with New Statesman contributor, Oliver Eagleton).
When Corbyn’s Labour “came under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back”, Sultana said. “This was a serious mistake.” In a post on X, responding to coverage of her comments, Sultana doubled down: “I say it loudly and proudly: I’m an anti-Zionist.”
Sultana’s comments in the NLR, revealing her explicit criticism of Corbynism’s dealings with anti-Semitism, expose a crucial fault line in the development of Your Party (as it is currently known). Many of Corbyn’s allies see accusations of anti-Semitism as responsible for the destruction of his Labour project. In describing his actions as “capitulation”, Sultana risks transferring these accusations across to Your Party. Considering how significant this criticism was for Corbyn’s leadership, it is a problem that Your Party – which is still in its infancy – may find difficult to counter.
The outspokenness of his co-founder is already seen by some around Corbyn as a fatal flaw in her future leadership. Briefings against Sultana by others close to the process have accused the MP for Coventry South of “jumping the gun” with her premature announcement of the new party or have criticised her lack of experience. Concerns have also been raised over Sultana’s refusal to engage with “legacy media” (the only interviews she has done so far regarding the new party have been with Novara Media and NLR) and her disparagement of the “media class” which she claims “tried to destroy Jeremy’s reputation and the politics he represents”. But Sultana does not seem fazed by her detractors – in fact, she sounds galvanised. “People who are supposedly on the left thinking it’s appropriate to use the Murdoch press to broadcast smears is astounding,” she told the NLR. “You cannot give these people an inch,” she said.
For now, Your Party remains at an “embryonic stage” with an impressive 700,000 sign-ups in recent weeks. But without proper infrastructure, leadership or direction, it is also at its most vulnerable state. Sultana has explicitly outlined the direction she believes her new party must take on accusations of anti-Semitism: one that is less willing to relent to outside pressure. But will the grandees involved in the creation of Your Party – many of whom lived through the painful and protracted final months of Corbyn’s Labour leadership – be prepared to listen? Or will Sultana’s call for a new, more stubborn direction on matters of principle only serve to deepen the grumbling rift in the burgeoning leadership of Your Party?
[See also: Labour has become the party of landlordism]
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