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Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of a party he isn’t a member of

The former Labour leader is now the parliamentary leader of Your Party - although the Commons authorities still list him as an independent

Your Party parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn takes part in a protest in London against war on Iran. Photo: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The election the whole nation has been talking about is over – and Jeremy Corbyn is officially parliamentary leader of Your Party, after triumphing in his titanic struggle over Zarah Sultana.

14 members of the party’s central executive committee voted to appoint Corbyn at the weekend, with zero voting against. He will now lead what the party describes as its cohort of four MPs at Westminster.

Your Party lists Corbyn, Sultana and fellow MPs Shockat Adam (Leicester South) and Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) as its parliamentary party (fellow co-founders Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed quit as the revolution quickly devoured its own children).

The Commons authorities, however, only recognise Sultana as a Your Party MP, with the other three continuing to be listed as independents, despite it being registered as a party with the Electoral Commission as far back as last September.

Not only does this mean that Corbyn is now the parliamentary leader of a party he doesn’t appear to have actually joined, in Commons terms, it technically still doesn’t exist. A party generally needs at least two MPs elected at the previous general election – not formed after it – to be recognised for parliamentary rights such as PMQs questions, committee seats and, crucially, funding in so-called Short Money.

Furthermore, Sultana, the only actual Your Party MP has been comprehensively sidelined by the Corbynistas after her slate of candidates, Grassroots Left, won only seven seats on the central executive committee. The Many, the Corbyn-linked slate, secured 14 seats, and independents won three. 

As an example of how bonkers the election was, the World Socialist website (site of the “International Committee of the Fourth International”) dubbed Corbyn “Britain’s anti-socialist witch-hunter” and lambasted his “ten years suppressing socialist sentiment”.

Celebrating his victory, Corbyn cheered: “We have a precious opportunity to unite our movement around a bold alternative – and I’m looking forward to campaigning alongside all members to build the mass, community-based, socialist party this country needs.”

Unfortunately for Corbyn, in the eight months since first announcing the creation of Your Party, the Greens have elected Zack Polanski as leader, won a huge by-election and now stand ahead of Labour in the latest YouGov poll. Back to the allotment for the Magic Grandpa?

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