The launch of a new far-left political party has been hit by rumours of division within moments of launching.
On Thursday night, suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced that she and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would co-lead a new, as yet unnamed, political party “with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”.
However, Corbyn himself is yet to make any public comment about the new party he is meant to be co-leading.
Sultana, a vociferous critic of Israel – who on Wednesday chanted “we are all Palestine Action” in a debate on the group’s proscription as a terrorist organisation – accused the government of being an “an active participant in genocide”.
She said in a statement that “across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.”
Jewish Labour Movement sources welcomed news that the Coventry South MP had left Labour.
“Corbyn and Sultana have much in common. Both have been charged with multiple allegations of antisemitism and failed the Jewish community. The Labour Party is better off without them.”
Under Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Council (EHRC) to have been responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination in its report on antisemitism within the party. Sultana has previously apologised for language she used as a student politician.
Fellow West Midlands MP Gurinder Singh Josan also celebrated Sultana’s departure from the Labour benches.
“The Labour Party is a social democratic Party and NOT a far-left ideologically driven revolutionary construct. Zarah is back in the irrelevance of the far-left. And the Labour Party will get on with the serious business of government”, he said in a post on X.
Despite being named as co-leader of the new political party by Sultana, according to Sunday Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund, the independent MP for Islington North has not yet joined the new party and was “furious and bewildered” at the way it was launched.
Several Labour figures were keen to mock the confusion.
“Splitting so soon?”, former Jewish Labour Movement chair Lord Katz asked sarcastically in a post on X where he also shared an image of the from Monty Python film Life of Brian, referencing the splits between the Peoples’ Front of Judea and Judean Peoples’ Front.
“At the moment it’s looking like they should have organised the launch at a brewery,” said Labour MP for Calder Valley Josh Fenton-Glynn.
Speculation has been mounting for some time about whether a new party of the left would be set up.
In September last year Corbyn and four other independent MPs elected on pro-Gaza platforms at the general election formally established a parliamentary grouping called the Independent Alliance.
Last week, a poll by think tank More in Common showed that a left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn would enjoy the support of one in ten people.
According to the Daily Mail, Corbyn is reported to have hinted at the prospect of a new party and told an event in Huddersfield that: “This whole cause is coming together so that by next year's local elections - long before that, I hope - we're going to have something in place.”
Green Party leadership candidate Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, appeared to welcome the new party and said on X: “Anyone who wants to take on the Tories, Reform and this failing Labour government is a friend of mine. Looking forward to seeing what this looks like in practice.”
However, a close ally of Corbyn has indicated that he would not be joining a new political party.
John McDonnell, who currently has the Labour whip suspended said he was “dreadfully sorry to lose Zarah from the Labour Party.
“The people running Labour at the moment need to ask themselves why a young, articulate, talented, extremely dedicated socialist feels she now has no home in the Labour Party and has to leave.”
The address linked to the new party – Sultana’s constituency office – is in a building owned by Unite, the left-wing trade union.
However, the JC understands that Sultana rents the office from the union and that there are no plans for Unite to back her new party.
Senior Unite and Labour sources told the JC that union was constitutionally bound to the Labour Party so would not support any other political party. They added that the last general election, Unite gave financial gave support to over 100 Labour candidates and Zarah Sultana was not one of them.
In 2019, the JC revealed that as a student Sultana has used the word “white” as a negative descriptor of Jewish people and said Zionism was a “racist ideology”; she subsequently said sorry for using “insensitive language”.
The JC also reported that Sultana taunted a National Union of Students official by claiming he did not "serve Israel as well as you would've liked."
She also suggested ex-NUS official Joe Vinson should move to Israel after he spoke out about antisemitism and support for the BDS campaign within the student movement.
Around the same time, Sultana said she had “been on a journey" to help her avoid making arguably antisemitic comments.
Corbyn has denied that he is antisemitic. Sultana has apologised for any controversial comments she made in the past, previously telling the JC: “Through my political activism I have been on a journey which has included working closely with Jewish comrades who have taught me about the language and history of antisemitism.” She added she had visited Auschwitz in 2013 and the trip had left her determined to “never to minimise the suffering of Jewish people”.
Corbyn, Sultana and Unite the union have been contacted for comment.
