How much longer can Your Party last? As of this afternoon (14 November), the nascent left-wing party is once again in chaos. Posting on X on 14 November, Adnan Hussain – a member of the Independent Alliance group of MPs – announced he would quit the steering process of Your Party because of “persistent infighting” and a “toxic, exclusionary and deeply disheartening culture” within the process. He is the first MP to quit the process since its inception in July.
Hussain’s resignation follows a typically torturous 24 hours for the new left-wing party. On Thursday evening, 11 minutes before Zarah Sultana was due to appear on BBC Question Time, the Independent Alliance (IA) put out a statement. Since the end of October, Sultana has been the director of MoU Ltd, a company incorporated in April which has – for some time – been in possession of around £800,000 worth of Your Party donations.
On Thursday morning, sources close to Sultana confirmed to the New Statesman that she had made the first transfer of £200,000. The IA called this as “insufficient”. The statement said: “A dedicated team of volunteers has been working on a shoestring budget to deliver a founding conference at the end of the month…. without funding Your Party’s capacity has been severely restricted.”
Some around Sultana saw the release of the statement so close to Sultana’s appearance on primetime TV as a direct attack. A source close to Sultana told the New Statesman that it looked like a “deliberate attempt to sabotage Zarah’s appearance on Question Time.” They said this perceived attack seemed to stem from concern that Sultana would win a leadership contest and accused IA of “attempting to destroy [Sultana] by any means possible”. Your Party sources deny that there was any correlation between the release of the statement and Sultana’s appearance on Question Time. The coincidence was due merely to the fact that the process for signing off responses takes some time.
It was the latest in a long line of very public splits and, for Hussain, seemingly the final straw. Announcing his departure from the group, Hussain said: “I believed, wholeheartedly, in building a political home with mass appeal… regrettably, the reality I encountered has been far from this vision.” He added: “I have been deeply troubled by the way certain figures within the process, particularly Muslim men have been spoken about and treated. At times, the rhetoric used has been disturbingly familiar to the forces the left claims to oppose.”
Hussain – though close to Jeremy Corbyn – has clashed with Your Party’s other co-founder, Zarah Sultana. In September, the pair collided over trans rights when the MP for Blackburn said in a post on X that he believed “women’s rights and safe spaces should not be encroached upon”.
Sultana later told the New Statesman: “This is a progressive, socialist party… my job as a parliamentarian first and foremost, as well as someone who is part of Your Party, is to speak up for the most marginalised voices…and that includes trans people”. She added: “Anyone who feels like they can’t subscribe to… these principles, then [Your Party] might not be for them.”
Following Hussain’s resignation, a source close to Sultana said: “this shows what a stupid idea it was to transfer control of the founding process over from a decision making body, appointed by Jeremy and containing a broad array of left-wing figures, to the six MPs, some of whom do not remotely share the politics of the 800,000 people who signalled an interest in Your Party”.
They called the decision to base Your Party’s founding around the Independent Alliance “a strategically disastrous move made for short-term gain” and suggested that it was the result of a few individuals resisting the prospect of co-leadership “as voted for by the original decision-making body”. (Corbyn himself did not vote at the online meeting where co-leadership was decided. He instead sent a message in the chat which read: “I don’t think this is a good idea. Can we delay?”).
Despite these criticisms, an email sent out to the Your Party mailing list from 1 August shows Sultana did sign off on this arrangement. The email reads: “Jeremy and Zarah will now be working with their colleagues in the Independent Alliance – Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan and Iqbal Mohamed – to kickstart the founding process and make an Autumn conference a reality.”
The source close to Sultana added: “Attempts to freeze Zarah out have done nothing but erode trust and enthusiasm.”
Where does the party go from here? As things stand, the party’s conference is set to take place at the ACC in Liverpool at the end of the month. Delegates have already been selected and press accreditation has been granted. But with such a major rupture dominating the headlines around Your Party, things are starting to look graver than ever.
[Further reading: With Keir Starmer flailing, is Anas Sarwar fighting for his job too?]
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