On 26 February, Gorton and Denton residents will bundle into coats, pull on scarves and gloves, and head out to their local polling station to choose a replacement for the Labour MP Andrew Gwynne. The former minister for prevention stepped down in January on health grounds, forcing a by-election: to retain control of the seat, the governing party is now faced with a twin-battle against both Reform and the Green Party.
As the voting commences in Greater Manchester, another, less prominent election will be drawing to a close. Elections to the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Your Party – the body which will serve as the party’s leader – finish on 26 February. Members will elect a 24-person committee, of which six will form the officers’ group. This will include a chair, deputy chair, secretary, treasurer, political officer and spokesperson. Their roles will be decided internally after the election results are announced on 26 February. Between them, the chair, deputy chair and spokesperson are expected to be the public-facing political leaders of the party.
Voting officially opens on Monday (9 February), but the race has already gained a deeply factional (and, as one side might have it, existential) edge. The party’s co-founders, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana (who are not known for their harmonious relationship) are running on rival slates. Allies of Corbyn have previously warned the New Statesman that if his slate does not win the upcoming election, it could spell the end of this troubled left-wing party.
In the midst of this tense internal election, Your Party has decided not to stand a candidate in Gorton and Denton. A Your Party source said that running the CEC election is taking up “organisational capacity” and pointed to the by-election’s short lead time. Party insiders explained to the NS that there is also a technical reason for this decision. Under party rules, the choice over whether or not to field a candidate in a by-election or election is up to the CEC; as things stand, the CEC electees will not assume their roles until 27 February, the day after the by-election.
Another layer, though, is the seat’s political landscape. According to the latest polling, Reform is predicted to take first place with 30.6 per cent of the vote. Labour is not far behind with 28.0 per cent of the vote, while the Green Party is sitting in third with 21.7 per cent. Between Labour and the Greens, a battle is raging to become the consensus progressive opponent to Nigel Farage’s renegade party.
But a choice between Labour and the Greens is straightforward for Your Party members, many of whom are former Labour members disillusioned by the current leadership, particularly its position over Gaza. Your Party members are most likely to back the Greens. Some within Your Party have made the case that adding another left-wing candidate to the mix would only serve to split the vote. This is reflected in the party’s statement: “The single greatest threat to this country right now is a far-right Reform government. This danger is being actively facilitated by a failing Labour government which is not prioritising the needs of the rich and powerful over ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.”
The decision not to stand a candidate was not made unilaterally. Your Party officials arrived at it after Corbyn spent time consulting online with local members who overwhelmingly agreed the circumstances were not right for the party. Both Corbyn and the party have shown support for the Green Party’s candidate – Hannah Spencer – in the upcoming by-election. But both have stopped short of a full endorsement.
According to Your Party sources, the membership widely agrees that their party shouldn’t obstruct a potential Green victory. But not everyone was satisfied with the decision not to run. Grassroots Left, the slate attached to Sultana, put out a statement arguing that Your Party should have a “principled, socialist candidate on the ballot”. (According to several insiders, shortly after the Gorton and Denton by-election had been announced, Sultana and her husband Craig Lloyd – a campaign director of Grassroots Left – were reportedly seeking a potential Your Party candidate).
The statement added: “Grassroots Left will not lend unconditional support to the Green Party candidate, because the Greens are a pro-capitalist, pro-Nato party and have been enforcing cuts in councils all over the country.”
The group’s position has been criticised by a wave of Your Party members who argued that it made no sense for a socialist party to split the left-wing vote and thereby increase the likelihood of a win for Reform. It has also sparked a wider discussion within the Your Party ranks.
Andrew Hedges, one of the co-founders of the DemBloc group, told the New Statesman, “The left can thrive in many different institutions and there is no need to become sectarian. The left will not be strengthened by attacking each other.” He pointed out that Your Party’s ultimate goal of defeating Reform and “empowering our class to take back control of their lives, their community and their country from the ultra-rich” must be kept in mind. Hedges said he would urge both slates “to recognise that the Greens can and should be an ally of Your Party. We shouldn’t lose sight of that”.
A few hours after Grassroots Left released their statement, Sultana shared her own on her personal X account in which she described Spencer as the biggest challenger to Labour and Reform. “I am, therefore, giving my personal critical support to her and the Green Party in this by-election and I urge others to do the same,” she added. Sultana concluded: “Ultimately, defeating fascism must be our number one priority”.
When asked why Sultana’s position had differed from that of Grassroots Left, a source close to her told the New Statesman, “the slate has a variety of viewpoints and many candidates have expressed their own personal views on this matter.” They added that Sultana’s statement did not contradict that of Grassroots Left but rather that it was framed in a different way.
Inside the Green Party, the battle over whether Your Party chose to back them or not didn’t make much difference. One source told the New Statesman, “we’re not really arsed about what they put on Twitter”. The source said local Your Party members have already been turning up to help canvas for Spencer in Gorton and Denton. They added: “While they mess around, we’ve got a by-election to win.”
Your Party is not organising to formally canvas for the Greens in Gorton and Denton, but it is encouraging individual members to do so if they wish. The party will hold a rally against the far right in Manchester on 21 February.
All eyes, instead, will now turn to the CEC elections in which Sultana and Corbyn are still battling for overall control of the party they helped to co-found. As voters wake up in Gorton and Denton on the morning of 27 February to a new member of parliament, Your Party members will be welcoming the dawn of a new era for the party’s leadership. How open it is to working with the Green Party remains to be seen.
[Further reading: Tracker: Labour MPs who have criticised Starmer over the Mandelson affair]
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