Contenders or Pretenders? – A surging but chaotic start for Corbyn and Sultana

Image - Luke Stackpoole

This article was originally published on Aug 5, 2025.

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“Real change is coming.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Zarah Sultana MP”

The bold and slightly ominous sign off to a statement published on the website of the “Your Party” – Westminster’s latest rebellious offshoot.

With a social justice and pro-Palestine agenda already garnering enthusiastic support on the left, this budding party is not to be sneered at. But can they snatch votes from Labour and ultimately compete for No.10 at the next election? Or will the real benefactor of Corbyn and Sultana’s mission end up being Nigel Farage?

After a long confinement to the shadowy backbenches, Jeremy Corbyn is back in what will surely be his political swansong (although, we all thought that in 2019). This time, he’s partnered with Zara Sultana, MP for Coventry South.

Like Corbyn, the 31-year-old has skirmished with Labour before, suspended by Keir Starmer last year when she voted against the two-child benefit cap. She left the party for good last month.

Now, Sultana and the ageing Corbyn are aiming to strike yet another blow to the political establishment in Westminster.

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Quick off the block

Although it's still early days, the response to the party launch has been impressive. More than 600,000 people have signed up in just over a week, including more well-known left-wing voices like commentator Owen Jones and former MP Beth Winter.

Corbyn’s high profile involvement in the project has been paramount to the surge in party sign-ups. His strong voice on Gaza, social injustice and the climate crisis has made him popular with younger voters.

A YouGov poll has Corbyn on plus 18 with 18–24-year-olds, with more than a third from this age group saying they would consider voting for a Corbyn-led party in the future. In fact, 58% of 2024 Green voters and 31% of 2024 Labour voters would also consider lending their vote to “Your Party” at the next election.

It's a promising start for a party with a support base that will likely benefit from the government’s decision to lower the voting age to include 16- and 17-year-olds.

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Teething problems

Corbyn’s polling naturally gets worse through the age groups, as few choose to reminisce on his last years with Labour. His tenure as leader was dominated by bullying and antisemitism rows in the party, with many lending him a slice of blame for the 14 years of Conservative turmoil, as he ultimately failed to craft an electable alternative in both 2017 and 2019.

The air of chaos has always followed Corbyn. He was arrested in 1984 whilst campaigning against apartheid in South Africa, and later that year had a very public row with Conservative MP Terry Dicks over the dress code in the House of Commons. While Labour was in power from 1997-2010, Corbyn managed to defy the whip a staggering 428 times. He even appeared on the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage in 2017.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the launch of his latest venture was reportedly garnished with some characteristic chaos.

The initial announcement of the creation of the party was made by Sultana on July 3^rd. She wrote on X: "Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”

A series of panicked WhatsApp messages following the announcement show that Sultana very much jumped the gun.

It was reported by the Times that the idea of Corbyn and Sultana’s co-leadership was never actually agreed prior to Sultana’s announcement.

In an organising committee meeting on Zoom, in which both Sultana and Corbyn were present, Corbyn and his allies reportedly boycotted a vote on the leadership format of the party. They argued that such a decision should be made at a democratic event.

Sultana was clearly keen for the co-leadership format to materialise. She and her allies, including former leader of George Galloway’s ‘Respect’ party, Salma Yaqoob, assumed victory in the vote. Her announcement on X came shortly after.

Corbyn and co fumed and scrambled at first. A member of the group chat exclaimed “Sorry guys am I missing something here? What on Earth is going on?”

Some accusations of broken trust followed. The next day, Corbyn released a statement, congratulating Sultana on her resignation from Labour. He claimed that “discussions are ongoing” for “a new kind of political party. Nearly 3 weeks later, Corbyn and Sultana then released a joint-statement, formally launching the party.

The name of the party also caused completely avoidable confusion. After leaving links to https://www.yourparty.uk/#// in their statement, many eager supporters came to the natural conclusion that the co-leaders had settled on the name “Your Party”.

But once again, this turned out not to be the case. Sultana took to X: “It’s not called Your Party!” It turns out that the formal name is to be decided by members at a conference in the Autumn.

The X taunting followed. Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly put the botched launch down to “carelessness” on Sultana’s part – while Health Secretary Wes Streeting responded hilariously with: “Not Your Party!”

Sultana was quick to attempt the clean-up job: “Westminster lobby journalists love this idea of drama, they love this idea of the left not really knowing what its doing.”

“We do know what we’re doing – and half a million people also recognise that.”

A worryingly on-brand signs of things to come for Corbyn? Or just a couple of early hiccups?

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The real winner?

Your Party will likely target areas of the country where their progressive, pro-Gaza stance will be especially welcomed. MPs in Corbyn’s Independent Alliance have had past success in Birmingham, parts of London, and north-west England. As things stand, they may well enjoy a sizeable helping of votes from former Labour backers in these areas, and beyond.

But Corbyn and Sultana’s mission to provide a fresh new approach may well have the opposite effect.

The result of a further fragmented left is a resurgent right. Should Your Party make enough of a dent into the Labour vote, a clearer path to victory will emerge for Nigel Farage and Reform - should their polling remain high by the next election.

But Sultana seems to be well aware of the high stakes attached to this project. Your Party is not about getting one over Labour without any regard for the potential consequences.

“You can’t take on Reform by mimicking them, which is what the Labour Party have done,” she claimed in a recent interview with Novara Media:

“I would actually argue for a tactical alliance method. It will be on our terms and will be in the interest of our members, but also to stop Farage getting into power.”

“That has to be the guiding principle.”

Corbyn and Sultana’s vision for defeating Reform is an unapologetically bold new path. Whether their vision galvanises voters, or hands power to Reform will depend not only on their joint-ambition, but whether a deeply fractured left will unite once again behind Jeremy Corbyn.