Your Party’s internal war over membership funding and data continues. Around £800,000 of funding, gathered from initial donations to the party is still held by MoU Operations Ltd. With Your Party’s founding conference now just over two weeks away, party officials need the money now more than ever to ensure this inaugural event – at which key details and policies will be decided – actually takes place.
MoU Operations Ltd was incorporated in April – by the former Labour mayor of the North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll; the independent candidate who stood against Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras in the 2024 general election, Andrew Feinstein; and the former Welsh Labour MP Beth Winter – when informal discussions about the need for a new left-wing party were ongoing.
A struggle between Your Party officials and the MoU Ltd directors over the transfer of funding rattled on until the end last month, when, on 29 October, Zarah Sultana (who is currently in the process of co-founding Your Party alongside Jeremy Corbyn) announced she had taken over as a director of MoU Ltd.
In a statement announcing their resignations from the MoU board of directors on 29 October, Driscoll, Feinstein and Winter said: “We are not founders of Your Party. We’ve had no part in decisions concerning Your Party since it was created.” The trio clarified that they have had no role in setting up portals, donation pages, membership systems or any other infrastructure for the party and have not been involved in the founding process in any way. “The role of holding donations was thrust upon us,” the statement said. “The company we are responsible for has been repeatedly used without our agreement.”
The group reportedly requested to meet with the Your Party leadership but “only one of their directors agreed”. (On Companies House, the Your Party Ltd directors are listed as Zarah Sultana, Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan and Iqbal Mohamed). Similarly, the statement said after taking legal advice, the group wrote to the Your Party leadership asking them to take complete ownership and control of MoU. “This would have handed over all data, money and everything else to Your Party. Five out of the six MPs declined.”
While both Corbyn and Sultana spoke to the MoU Group, Sultana is the only MP to have agreed to taking over directorship of the company. Now, as the sole director of MoU Ltd, she is in control of £800,000 worth of funding intended for use by the party. Your Party insiders have accused her of withholding the money. This is a charge Sultana denies, with a spokesperson for the Coventry South MP saying she is working to transfer all of the funding and data held by MoU Ltd to Your Party: “As sole director, she is legally responsible for ensuring the company’s costs, liabilities and expenses are settled,” said the spokesperson, adding, “This process may take some time.”
Sultana has said once this has happened, she will transfer £600,000 of the party’s funding in tranches over the next two weeks. The first transfer of £200,000 was due to be sent to Your Party on 12 November. “All remaining funds will be transferred once the party’s costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full,” Sultana’s spokesperson said.
However, there are conditions on Sultana’s transfer of the funding. A source close to her explained that as part of the due diligence required of her as MoU Operations Ltd’s director, Sultana has requested Your Party’s constitution and financial scheme as registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September. The source explained Sultana needs these documents so she can record that the management of conflicts of interests is properly addressed, but said there has been a “puzzling” refusal from Your Party officials to share these documents. Sultana has now requested the documents directly from the Electoral Commission.
As of 12 November, no transfer had taken place. A source close to Sultana told the New Statesman she will make the transfer today. Sources within Your Party said they plan to respond imminently and criticised Sultana for presenting this funding agreement as a fait accompli, without having secured agreement from Your Party officials.
Your Party sources confirm they have repeatedly made the same request of MoU Ltd – that the £800,000 in donations be transferred to Your Party Ltd. They add that the continued refusal to do so is damaging the party’s ability to operate, including the organisation of the party’s founding conference. They say that accessing these donations is essential to ensuring the conference – at which the party’s constitution and political direction are due to be decided – can run as smoothly as possible. Insiders told the New Statesman that Your Party will not accept any of the money accrued from the unauthorised 18 September launch without legal assurances.
Sultana has made assurances that all the money held by the company will be used for Your Party purposes. But even after this saga has been resolved, trust between the two camps will have been damaged. As delegates descend on Liverpool for Your Party’s founding conference in just over a fortnight, will this nascent left-wing party manage to put on a united front?
[Further reading: Does Keir Starmer realise how much trouble he’s in?]
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