Your Party | |
|---|---|
| Logo of Your Party [a] | |
| Leader | Collective leadership |
| Governing body | Central Executive Committee |
| Founders | Jeremy Corbyn Zarah Sultana among others |
| Registered | 30 September 2025 |
| Headquarters | 89–93 Fonthill Road London N4 3JH [1] |
| Membership (2025) | 55,000 |
| Ideology | Socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Colours | Red Cream |
| Slogan | This is Your Party (2025) [2] |
| House of Commons | 1 / 650 [b] |
| Councillors [3] | 28 / 18,645 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Your Party is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom announced in July 2025 by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. It was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September 2025. At its founding conference in November 2025, a collective leadership model was adopted.
Your Party has one declared member of Parliament (MP), Sultana, in the House of Commons, with three MPs in the Independent Alliance, including Corbyn, also in the party. Sultana had joined the Independent Alliance in July 2025, but exited in September. Two further Independent Alliance MPs had supported Your Party, but have since withdrawn their support. Other key figures involved in Your Party include Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy, the former National Assembly of South Africa member Andrew Feinstein and the former Labour Party MP Beth Winter.
There have been disputes between its key figures regarding how the party should have been launched, including a contested launch of paid membership, questions of the role of social conservatism, as well as issues regarding gender imbalance and democratic accountability.
Jeremy Corbyn was first elected as a Labour Party Member of Parliament at the 1983 general election. He served as the Labour leader from 2015, when the party's members elected him to succeed resigning leader Ed Miliband, until 2020, when he resigned and was replaced by Keir Starmer. Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party in October 2020, following his reaction to a report into antisemitism. [4]
In 2022, Corbyn's former communications director James Schneider published Our Bloc: How We Win, which proposed the creation of a new party to the left of Labour. [5] In late 2023, Peace & Justice Project director Pamela Fitzpatrick, academic Justin Schlosberg (who later left the new organisation) and Corbyn's former chief of staff, Karie Murphy, formed Collective, an organisation bringing together various left-wing groups and independents, [5] with the stated intention to "drive the formation of a new, mass-membership political party of the left in the UK". [6]
Having been suspended from Labour, Corbyn was unable to stand as a Labour candidate in the 2024 general election in Islington North. He stood as an independent and was thus expelled from Labour. [7] He won re-election. He then formed a parliamentary group, the Independent Alliance, with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Palestinian platforms. Labour won the election overall, with Starmer becoming prime minister. The Financial Times said that there was anger among the left about the Labour Party shifting to the right under Starmer's premiership. [8]
Discussions were held in autumn 2024 involving Corbyn and senior members of Collective including Murphy, as well as former Labour Mayor of the North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll (leader of the Majority party), Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman (leader of Aspire) and others. [5] At the time, it was reported the intention was to create a party called "Collective". [9] Politics Home reported one idea for the leadership group was to be Corbyn, Rahman, former National Assembly of South Africa member Andrew Feinstein and Salma Yaqoob, the former Respect Party leader. According to The Spectator, three of the members of the Independent Alliance, Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain and Ayoub Khan, were in favour of the creation of a political party to build momentum, but Corbyn was more hesitant. [10] By 2025, Collective involved groups including Aspire, Just Stop Oil, The Muslim Vote, the Socialist Party, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), Liverpool Community Independents and more independent councillors. [6] [5]
Zarah Sultana was re-elected as a Labour Party MP in 2024, but shortly after had the whip suspended. She also became involved in discussions towards a new party. [5] Feinstein, Driscoll and the former Labour MP Beth Winter set up the company MoU Operations Ltd (MoU), [11] incorporated on 2 April 2025, "to support the creation of an alliance of progressive community independents, with Jeremy Corbyn playing a central role in its formation". [12] The directors have said that the company was not involved in the creation of Your Party. [13]
At the start of July 2025, an online meeting of an organising committee was convened by Salma Yaqoob, bringing together various socialist activists. [5] [14] The discussions included Corbyn and his allies in Collective, as well as Sultana. [5] A vote was passed in favour of forming a party co-led by Corbyn and Sultana. Corbyn and his allies had abstained, as they wished to wait until a conference setting up a new party was held to vote on the leadership. [14]
On 3 July 2025, Sultana announced online that she was leaving Labour and planned to create a new political party with Corbyn and other independents. [15] [16] Iqbal Mohamed of the Independent Alliance supported her comments on social media. [17] Corbyn confirmed there were ongoing discussions around forming a new party. [18] Corbyn had not been expecting the announcement, [19] [16] [20] and it reportedly "frustrated" him. [16] According to The Times , Corbyn had not agreed to Sultana's statement, and had implored her to delete it after posting. [14]
On 24 July 2025, initially via a post on the social media platform X, Corbyn and Sultana launched a website where people could sign up and inviting supporters to an inaugural conference. Promotion referred to "Your Party – and the new party that develops from it". The "Your Party" name was picked up in the media. [21] [22] [23] However, Sultana tweeted in response, "It's not called Your Party!", and it has been described as an interim name. [24] [25] The other members of the Independent Alliance expressed support for the creation of a new party, and welcomed Sultana to the group. [26] [27]
Corbyn said that more than 80,000 people signed up to the party's mailing list in the first five hours, [28] and in less than a week, the party had received over 600,000 sign-ups. [29] Sky News reported that the party had about 200 councillors already involved, some of whom had come from existing independent groups. [28]
In August 2025, it was reported that senior figures involved in the formation of the party were splitting into factions. One of the factions, which included Driscoll, Feinstein and Roger Hallam (co-founder of Extinction Rebellion), were opposed to building a party straight away, instead arguing for an alliance involving various independent groups, [30] towards a "federal approach" made up of a range of grassroots movements. [31] The other faction took a "party first" approach, establishing a "cohesive, unified party", [30] and working out the grassroots details later. [32] This latter camp involved figures connected to Collective, the organisation which played a large part in establishing the party, including Murphy and Pamela Fitzpatrick. [31] Corbyn was said to be closer to the Collective group, but that his ideas for how Your Party should operate were closer to those of the Driscoll/Feinstein group. Likewise, Sultana was said to be more aligned with the Driscoll/Feinstein group, but her ideas for the party closer to those of the Collective faction. [32] Others, including Schneider and Corbyn's senior advisor Andrew Murray, have argued for different models. [30]
By 22 August, the party was said to have over 800,000 sign-ups, [33] including over 23,000 in Wales, [34] and over 40,000 in Scotland. [35] An online form asking for suggestions for a name opened on 26 August. [36]
Membership opened in September. [37] [38] Mark Serwotka, the former General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union and former Labour MP Claudia Webbe stated that they had joined the party. [39]
A dispute emerged within the party over its approach to the rights of transgender people, after Adnan Hussain publicly agreed with a social media user who said that the fledgling party should not "parrot the same neoliberal idea of gender ideology" and called for separate spaces for transgender people. [40] Sultana later stated that "trans rights are human rights. Your Party will defend them. No ifs, no buts, and I won’t let anyone get in the way of this fight," without naming Hussain publicly. [41] Some insiders reportedly believed that the dispute exposed deeper disagreements regarding the party's attitude towards socially conservative voters. [42] Corbyn has not taken a stance over whether there should be a zero tolerance approach to allowing such views in the party. [42]
On 18 September, Sultana and her team sent out a formal membership invitation by email to those who had expressed interest in the new party, and saw more than 22,000 sign up, [43] [44] which raised an estimated £500,000. [45] Sultana announced the membership launch on her social media and attributed rumours about it being fake to "right-wing bad faith actors". [46] [47] On her account on X, Sultana posted a new sign-up URL for a membership portal on a different domain to the party's main website. [48] [47]
Within hours, the other five members of the Independent Alliance released a joint statement that urged supporters to ignore the "unauthorised email" and cancel any direct debits, and declared that legal advice was being taken. [46] [44] [49] The statement was posted by Corbyn on X and circulated by email. [46] Another statement posted on the official Your Party X account stated that the data controller had reported the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office. [43] In her counter-statement on X, Sultana said that she had acted "in line with the roadmap set out to members" and "to safeguard the grassroots involvement" after having been "sidelined by the MPs named in [the] statement", adding that Your Party was being run as a "sexist boys' club" due to a lack of gender balance on the party's Working Group. [44] [49] [43] She also alleged that Corbyn's former chief of staff Karie Murphy had been handed "sole financial control", [43] and informed that membership fees were received by the company MoU Operations Ltd, in which Corbyn and his team had no direct involvement. [44] [50] [47] Sultana urged Corbyn to meet with her to discuss the dispute and to make all agreements public. [44] [46] At the annual conference of the Peace and Justice Project on 20 September, Corbyn defended Murphy, saying he was "appalled" when people attacked her. [51]
PoliticsHome reported that a split was now "inevitable" according to "several" party sources [44] while some external observers speculated about the collapse of the project. [52] [53] Those of Corbyn's allies who spoke to BBC News and to the Middle East Eye did not believe reconciliation was likely but claimed that the party building process would follow the agreed schedule, with key decisions left to members at the November conference, [50] [52] while The Independent reported that insiders expected the dispute resolution to require time [54] and Sky News said mediation efforts were under way. [55] Corbyn's former policy director Andrew Fisher and The Guardian journalist Owen Jones both warned that a prolonged dispute would lead to a transfer of support to the Green Party, [50] [43] and former Corbyn spokesman Matt Zarb-Cousin called on Corbyn and Sultana to both join the Green Party. [55] The Guardian reported on the following day that the "public split" contributed to a "surge" in the Green Party membership, with the party gaining over 1,400 members in 24 hours. [56]
On 19 September, Sultana wrote she had instructed defamation lawyers to take action against the authors of "false and defamatory statements" concerning her launch of the membership portal, and described the "attacks" as "baseless" and "politically-motivated". [57] On 20 September, Jamie Driscoll, Andrew Feinstein and Beth Winter, the directors of MoU Operations Ltd, published a letter saying they had "tried to mediate between Jeremy and Zarah for some weeks" and "demanded a meeting [to which one side had] not responded despite multiple attempts", and promising to communicate a mechanism for refunds. [58] On 21 September, Sultana announced in a further statement she would desist from legal action "as an act of good faith" and was "determined to reconcile" during ongoing talks with Corbyn. [59]
On 24 September, Corbyn announced the launch of the official membership portal for the party via a video on social media, based on the same domain as the party's original website. [60] [61] Initially, it had not been made clear whether the 20,000+ who joined the party previously would have their membership carried over; [62] however, later that day, the party clarified they would carry over automatically. [63] Later on in the day, Sultana herself posted that she was a member of the party, [64] [65] which has been interpreted as a 'climbdown' from the co-leader proposals, or alternatively as a leadership pitch. [66]
Following a joint appearance by Sultana and Corbyn at The World Transformed, Sultana insisted that the pair were still able to work together and compared their relationship to that of Oasis' Gallagher brothers. [67]
The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian reported that legal issues were preventing members who had signed up with the first membership portal controlled by MoU Operations Ltd (MoU) from transferring their details and funds to the new system. [68] [69] The Guardian also reported that figures in Your Party UK Ltd would be taking legal action against MoU's directors. [68] Feinstein, Winter and Driscoll subsequently resigned as directors of MoU, with Sultana taking control as the sole director of the company from 28 October. [12] [13] [70]
The party published its draft founding documents, including plans for its constitution, the rules of the party, organisational strategy and a political statement. Internal elections would use a "one member, one vote" system.[ citation needed ] At this stage, a leadership contest to elect a single party leader for a maximum 21 month term was expected to commence in January 2026, with the result confirmed by the end of March. Also, a 21-member Central Executive Committee (CEC) was to include sixteen seats directly elected by members and two reserved for MPs. [71] [72] This initial leadership model - single leader plus CEC - was later overturned by founding conference vote and replaced by a leadership committee of lay members. [2]
On 3 November, it was announced that Your Party membership stood at 50,000. Overall membership was expected to increase by up to 20,000 as those who had joined via the portal launched by Zarah Sultana were transferred over, but would still sit below the 100,000 to 200,000 members that insiders had expected to sign up. [73] Reports suggested that the total amount of money held by MoU was around £1,300,000, with £800,000 from the initial donations and the rest from the Sultana membership launch. [74] [45] An offer by Sultana to transfer £600,000 from MoU in a series of phases was opposed by the Independent Alliance MPs. [75] [76] The first £200,000 was transferred on 13 November. [45] Ahead of the party's inaugural conference, Sultana stated that she had transferred £600,000 (of the initial donations), with any remaining money to follow when liabilities were settled [77] and "the legal details are ironed out". [2]
On 14 November 2025, Adnan Hussain withdrew his support for Your Party over "persistent infighting" within the party. In a statement on social media he also claimed that there had been prejudice towards himself and other Muslim MPs within the party, including the use of "offensive slurs". Hussain confirmed that he would continue to sit as an Independent Alliance MP. [78] [79] [80]
Around the same time, Jamie Driscoll told The House that he was not a member of Your Party and would not be joining, [45] and subsequently joined the Green Party a month later. [81] Iqbal Mohamed left Your Party on 21 November. [82] In a statement on X, Mohamed cited the "many false allegations and smears made against me and others, and reported as fact without evidence". [83] [84] He also claimed that Zarah Sultana had "voluntarily left the Independent Alliance and the Your Party stewarding group on 18 Sept 2025" [83] [85] (the date that she launched the first membership portal). Sultana has said that she was "excluded". [86] Mohamed said that he would continue serving as an independent MP, working with his colleagues in the Independent Alliance. [83] [84]
The party's inaugural conference was held on 29 and 30 November 2025 at the ACC in Liverpool, following a number of regional assemblies. The party initially expected 13,000 members, selected via a sortition process, to participate in the conference. [62] [87] Expected attendance figures were subsequently lowered, [45] [88] and the final number attending was about 2,500. [87]
Although she arrived at the venue, Sultana did not attend the first day of the conference in protest at the exclusion of delegates for holding membership of other political parties, including members of the Socialist Workers Party. [89] In another incident, members of the Revolutionary Communist Group were removed from the venue. [73] [90] The conference subsequently voted to allow such dual memberships.
On the second day of the conference, the delegates voted against having any single leader, instead opting for the party to have a collective leadership consisting of a Central Executive Committee with a chairperson who was required not to be an MP, the position supported by Sultana. [91] The delegates also voted to permanently adopt the then-temporary name Your Party, rejecting the alternate names of Our Party, Popular Alliance, and For The Many. [92]
By 1 December 2025, the party had a membership of 55,000. [87] [93] On 6 December, The Telegraph reported that the Electoral Commission was investigating a complaint made by group Labour Against Antisemitism that the name 'Your Party' could breach the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 by misleading voters. [94] On 7 December, Sultana called for discussion around possible electoral alliances with the Greens. [95]
In their joint statement formally announcing the new party in July 2025, Corbyn and Sultana mentioned policy areas such as wealth redistribution, nationalisation, investing in social housing and opposing the privatisation of the National Health Service. They stated that members would decide on the party's direction, leadership and policies at an inaugural conference. [96] The party is expected to call for action against climate change and protection of the right to protest. [24]
In a speech given at Liverpool in October 2025, Sultana stated that Your Party would be a "genuinely democratic socialist party". [97] The party also focusses on participatory methods of democracy: Corbyn has emphasised grassroots organisation [24] and Sultana the mandatory recall of party MPs by constituency vote. [97]
The party is expected to be significantly more critical of Israel compared to Labour, [24] [96] with its founding platform setting out Your Party's opposition to selling arms to the Israeli military. [98] In an interview in August 2025, Sultana claimed that Corbyn, when he was Labour leader, had "capitulated" in adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, [20] [99] arguing that the definition equates antisemitism with anti-Zionism. [100] Following commentary around these statements, Sultana posted to social media that she was an anti-Zionist. [20] Her comments were criticised by Jewish organisations, including the Board of Deputies and Campaign Against Antisemitism. [99] [101] [100] Responding, in a separate interview, Corbyn suggested it was "not really necessary" to "bring all that up", [102] and said that he was more in favour of the Jerusalem Declaration. [103] In November, the New Statesman reported that activists and members had repeatedly pressed Corbyn to clarify his position and confirm that the party would be anti-Zionist. Corbyn responded by restating his support for Palestine. [104]
The party has also been described by observers as embroiled in divided views between members who support progressive stances on LGBT rights and transgender issues and those who hold socially conservative beliefs on the matter. [105] [42] [106] [107] The divide was cited as a factor in MPs Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed withdrawing their support for Your Party [108] while The Independent cited the more progressive faction around Sultana as ideologically clashing with the socially conservate attitudes among some Muslim communities which Your Party also hopes to win support from. [109] During its November 2025 conference, the party's members voted to add the term "trans liberation" to its mission statement to fight the "struggles of all oppressed people." [110]
Interviewed alongside Jamie Driscoll at the Majority conference in September 2025, Sultana named "beating Reform" as the party's "most important goal for the [following] four years". [111] At the party's founding conference, held in November 2025, members voted for the party to describe itself as a "member-led socialist party". [87]
Various councillors were involved in talks leading up to the creation of the party. [5] [28] As of December 2025 [update] , 28 councillors had declared their support for Your Party. [3] [112] Lancashire County Council has three councillors that have joined the party, while Walsall Council and Hastings Borough Council have six councillors each. [113] [114] [115] Three Scottish Green councillors on Glasgow City Council defected to Your Party in October 2025. [116]
The Daily Telegraph reported on 25 July that Corbyn and his allies were in the process of forming a steering committee for the new party, which would operate independently from the Peace & Justice Project, a campaign movement led by Corbyn. [117] The six Independent Alliance MPs would oversee the founding of the party. [5] On 31 July, "Your Party UK Ltd" was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, with Adnan Hussain as company secretary, and the other five members of the Independent Alliance as directors; on 15 September, Corbyn was removed as the person with significant control, although he was restored as such on 22 October. [118] [54]
There were plans for the party to launch its first Scottish branch in Glasgow in September. [33] There are discussions about trades unions possibly affiliating. [5] The party was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September 2025 under the name "Your Party". Corbyn was listed as leader of the party, with Adnan Hussain and Marion Roberts listed as nominating officer and treasurer respectively. The Commission requires a single named leader and does not recognise co-leadership. [119]
Prior to the withdrawal of Hussain and then Mohamed from Your Party in November, all members of the Independent Alliance, including Sultana, had expressed an intention to sit for the new party in the UK House of Commons. [120] On 18 November 2025, Zarah Sultana became Your Party's first MP in the House of Commons. [121] The party is also attempting to convince a number of sitting Labour MPs, including those from the Socialist Campaign Group, to defect and join the new party. [122] [5]
At the party's inaugural conference, delegates voted to adopt a collective leadership model, in which an elected Central Executive Committee, composed of ordinary members and party MPs, would make executive decisions. The committee's non-MP chair, vice chair, and spokesperson would provide public political leadership. [123]
Polling carried out by YouGov in July 2025 found that 18% of the electorate would be open to consider voting for a new party led by Corbyn. [124] [125] In November 2025 they found that this had fallen to 12%. [126] [87] Another poll carried out by Ipsos in August found that 20% of voters considered themselves very or fairly likely to back the new party, while 31% would be open to voting for a united ticket between the new party and the Green Party. [127] [128] Since the party was announced, it has polled between 4% [129] and 6% [130] in hypothetical voting intention polls.
My motivation has always been to strengthen our collective project to build a genuinely democratic socialist party worthy of the struggles that have come before us to fight for maximum member democracy.