Iqbal Mohamed has quit Your Party. The Independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley announced his resignation from the project currently being co-founded by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn in a post on X on 21 November. He is the second MP in a week to leave the party after Adnan Hussain, the Independent MP for Blackburn, quit last week.
This is the latest in a long series of unfortunate moments for Your Party. Next weekend, it will hold its founding conference at the ACC in Liverpool at which its founding constitution and political statement will be voted on by members. So far the party is losing sitting MPs at a rate of one a week. Only three MPs remain in the Independent Alliance which has stewarded the party to its founding conference; Corbyn, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan (Your Party sources say they do not expect any more MPs to leave the party). Sultana remains involved, although she voluntarily left the Independent Alliance on 18 September.
In his statement, Mohamed blamed the “surprising and disappointing” false “allegations and smears made against me and many others” for his departure and added, “I am confident that my colleagues and I have acted professionally, patiently and in good faith throughout.” Last week, Mohamed clashed with Sultana over trans rights. In a post on X, he said women’s rights must not be “taken away”. A spokesperson for Sultana later said trans rights must be “non-negotiable” for Your Party.
Your Party sources see this latest resignation as explicit proof of the damage that has been done over the past few months to the fragile electoral coalition the party was set up to represent; between the Muslim vote, freshly galvanised by the war in Gaza, and the wider left. A source told the New Statesman that Mohamed’s resignation speaks to a wider alienation of Muslim communities, who are increasingly not joining Your Party. They said this comes in the context of an increase in attacks on the Independent Alliance MPs from ultra-left activists.
One source pointed to Sultana’s suggestion that there is no place for socially conservative views in a left-wing party as being particularly damaging. In an interview with the New Statesman in September, Sultana said: 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 to the most marginalised voices.” She added: “Anyone who feels like they can’t subscribe to…these principals, then [Your Party] might not be for them.” A spokesperson for Sultana declined to comment.
What does this mean for Your Party? As things stand, its founding conference is all set to go next weekend, but relations are still rocky between the party’s two camps. One Your Party source said they are hopeful that once the conference is out of the way and the two camps have ironed out their differences in public, things could calm down. Another thought this is just the tip of the iceberg. One thing is clear, however, the fragile electoral coalition Your Party was set up to represent is already floundering. It will take more than a founding conference to win those voters back.
[Further reading: Why I’m defecting to the Greens: former Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle]
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