Liverpool braces for Your Party’s conference

All eyes will be on Liverpool this weekend, where Your Party will be holding its first ever conference. The new upstart left wing party is jointly led by Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP, and Jeremy Corbyn, noted allotment enthusiast and former leader of the Labour party. The progressive atmosphere in Liverpool this weekend will no doubt make for a calm, inclusive and productive occasion.

Not so – the venue hosting the conference has already been warned about potential disruptions by left wing campaign groups and is preparing for the threat of disgruntled protestors storming the stage. Worried organisers have already had to lay on extra security.

That combative atmosphere reflects the in-fighting that’s been raging for months between Corbyn, Sultana and their lieutenants. The poisonous atmosphere within the party was made clear in a recent Guardian report which noted dryly, that: “Sultana has for the past three months mainly communicated with her supposed colleagues through lawyers”.

And perhaps not surprisingly it turns out that divided, angry parties, with leaderships fighting like rats in a sack aren’t especially attractive to voters. A recent Yougov poll showed that just 12% of people would now consider voting for the Corbyn-Sultana bunfight. That’s down from 18% in July.

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But perhaps even more threateningly, of all those who said they were willing to vote for Your Party, 85% said they were also open to voting for the Greens. Zach “Hypnotits” Polanski, the Green leader, may have his, er, quirks – but he is a strong communicator, there’s only one of him and he leads a party that’s not constantly tearing itself to bits.

Corbyn and Sultana have always been firmly behind the Stop the War movement, and members of that group will no doubt be on show in Liverpool this weekend. But if they want to get anywhere near power and see off the gathering Green threat, Jez and Zarah need to stop the war currently raging in their own party. But if Corbyn’s stewardship of the Labour party is anything to go by, there’s little chance of peace breaking out any time soon.