Your Party – Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s exciting new left wing project which, let’s be honest, you had forgotten existed – is finally set to choose a leader. Or, to be more exact, leaders.
Eschewing the boring old bourgeois format of having an accountable leader in Parliament, Your Party has taken the step of actually banning MPs from being leader. Instead, members will elect a 16-member leadership committee, including a chair and deputy chair who must be lay members.
Not that that will stop the squabbling between its two most prominent members, both of whom are MPs (although Corbyn is technically listed by Parliament as an independent). Those standing have split into two slates – The Many, which is loyal to former Labour leader Corbyn, and Grassroots Left, which is supportive of Sultana. There is no love lost between the pair after a rift emerged last year when Sultana was accused of jumping the gun in launching a membership drive, leading to a public squabble over funds.
If The Many win most of the seats they are expected to elect Corbyn as ‘parliamentary leader’ – which would effectively make him leader in the media’s eyes, as he will have a much greater public presence than whoever is elected chair. Grassroots Left is looking to do similar with Sultana.
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A The Many source told the PoliticsHome website: “Members have a choice. They can vote to build a popular, mass vehicle that looks outwards. Or they can hand the party over to splinter groups that have spent the past six months attacking the most influential figure on the British left.” (That’s Corbyn, by the way.)
A Grassroots Left source, meanwhile, said: “Support for the Grassroots Left is growing by the day. Members have responded overwhelmingly to our positive plan to immediately recognise branches, give access to their data and stand Your Party candidates in the upcoming elections this May.
“We were also delighted to have received an endorsement from Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi and Ken Loach’s ‘Platform for a Democratic Party’ over the weekend, as they too can see the stark difference in visions for the party. We urge everyone to vote early, and vote Grassroots Left.” And what endorsements! Wimborne-Idrissi is a little-known activist, while Platform for a Democratic Party was described by the Communist Weekly Worker of all titles last week as “feeling rather out of date”.
Meanwhile two of the other MPs who joined Your Party at launch, Iqbal Mohamed and Adnan Hussain, have already quit. It’s all going very well!
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