Your Party's Latest Fiasco Has The Disillusioned Left Looking In Just One Direction – And It's Not At Corbyn

Disillusioned left-wing voters began to light up again over the summer when Jeremy Corbyn announced he was setting up a new party.

The former Labour leader said he would be teaming up with fellow ex-Labour and now independent MP Zarah Sultana, and promised to champion everything the current government has – according to its leftwing critics – been too inactive over.

From scrapping the two-child benefit cap to taking on “the rich and powerful”, it seemed very much like it was all of the ideas Keir Starmer has refused to look at since being elected.

Interest skyrocketed, and hundreds of thousands flocked to sign up to the Your Party (formal name yet to follow).

That all seems like a distant memory now, as the two MPs at the party’s forefront had a very public falling out over establishing a key element of the group this week: its membership.

It appears Sultana set up a portal to allow members to the public to join Your Party without getting Corbyn’s sign-off.

She accused the group of becoming a “sexist boys’ club”, while he urged members to cancel their direct debits as he sought legal advice.

YourParty’s offiically account then issued anotherstatement, calling out Sultana for “unilaterally” announcing the launch of a new party in July.

“She has not been excluded from any discussions,” it read, adding that a “diverse, gender-balanced group of volunteers” were building the group.

Social media was soon awash with fury – not from people taking one side or another but from pure exasperation at the chaos.

Even pro-Corbyn supporter commentator Owen Jones wrote on X: “It is clearly a bit of a shitshow. Given the country is veering towards fascism, this is unforgivable. If it’s not resolved soon, people will switch off and just bet everything on the Greens.”

He’s not alone in that call – other vocal early supporters of Your Party, like Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar, concluded the big winner from this spat is “Keir Starmer... followed by Zack Polanski”.

Labour could, of course, win back voters who were considering Your Party.

But their implosion will matter more to the Green insurgents who are on the up, considering there was speculation that they might be overshadowed or outshone by Corbyn’s new group.

As Kieran Pedley of pollsters Ipsos previously told HuffPost UK, an alliance between two parties would be popular.

“Our polling suggests more than three in ten Brits overall would consider voting for a Green/Left alliance. Whether one is coming remains to be seen,” he said.

But this recent disagreement has certainly turned some Greens off to working with the independents.

One party insider told HuffPost UK: “How can any of them think airing this in public is a good idea?”

They said that Sultana should have joined their ranks long ago – although they did say many were wary behind closed doors that the MP would not “want to play second fiddle” to their new leader Zack Polanski now.

Another source noted that Your Party is evidently already “bogged down” by process and leadership rows.

When asked if he would be open to Corbyn and Sultana joining forces with the Greens, Polanski diplomatically told HuffPost UK: “My door is always open for conversations with Jeremy and Zarah.

“Two people committed to making our country fairer who I really respect.”

But the Green Party leader said he was focused on “growing the movement”, pointing out that they now have 75,000 members.

Asked if their fallout was a distraction, Polanski said: “We’re not – and won’t be – distracted. Distraction is something many in this country literally can’t afford.”

Despite Polanski’s seemingly welcome embrace, it’s worth remembering Corbyn told reporters in the summer than he did not think the group was “left-wing” enough for the alliance.

And, as a source close to Corbyn circles told HuffPost UK after Polanski won the leadership race two weeks ago, scepticism remains over Your Party’s approach to the Greens.

“Those warm tweets congratulating Zack on his win just look like a good PR stunt,” they said, suggesting Your Party is “hanging off the coattails” of the recent interest in the Greens with these “political overtures.”

A Green insider also predicted to HuffPost UK just two weeks ago that Corbyn’s new group will end up being “bogged down in Communist structures” – noting they have not even committed to an official start date for their party yet.

They argued that the Greens have the advantage right now, with a clear system of working, which Your Party evidently does not have – as proven by this week.

Those on team Polanski also say he has a reputation for being “courageous and moving at speed”, which is a clear change from the glacial pace the Greens are historically known for operating at.

The Greens did have an unusually tense leadership contest, but insiders have pointedly said they will find a way of working together, even if it takes time.

“There is no factionalism or a split,” they said.

Meanwhile, figure once close to Corbyn also said the former Labour chief is still the “same leader that he was” and finds it “difficult to make decisions”.

The claim appears to rings true after Sultana’s allegation that she had been “frozen out of the official accounts” – and so decided to step forward with party progress on her own.

Your Party have promised to have some kind of autumn conference where they would get to grips with the unwieldy organisation they’ve created.

That means they’ve given themselves a rather tight timeframe to build bridges, all while the Greens appear to be going from strength to strength.

The question is: Will they be able to get it together before losing too much support to Polanski’s revitalised party machine? 

Or will they – as Polanski wants – find themselves turning Green?