An exciting new party of the hard left is being birthed in British politics – and in the grand tradition of hard left British parties, it’s squabbling with itself before it’s even got up and running.
Zarah Sultana, re-elected as the Labour MP for Coventry South exactly a year ago only to have the whip removed for voting against the government in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, has now quit Labour entirely.
She announced at 8.11pm last night she would co-lead a new party with Jeremy Corbyn, to be founded with “other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”. “Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them,” she said. “It’s time the rest of us had one.”
Suggested Reading
Is Wales’s shortest-serving first minister heading for the Lords?
Only one problem: she appeared not to have checked with Corbyn that he was on board with co-leading a new party with her. Gabriel Pogrund, a Sunday Times journalist who has co-written a book on the Corbyn years, revealed that the one-time Dear Leader had not actually agreed to join. “He is furious and bewildered at the way it has been launched without consultation,” Pogrund wrote.
Corbyn has been in talks with his fellow left-wing Independent Alliance group of MPs – Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed – about formally registering as a party as “an alternative” to Labour (a move which would also entitle them to funding from the Commons authorities).
The name “Real Change” has been mooted – while the merits of using the already-existing “Collective” movement or Corbyn’s “Peace and Justice Project” as party names have also been discussed.
But not, apparently, with Sultana, whose announcement was dismissed within hours. Even by the standards of the British hard left, that’s a pretty swift split!
Most popular
The deadly old men who rule half the world
After one year in office, here's what Starmer needs to do now
Meet Zack Polanski, Britain’s first eco-populist
Meanwhile, in Gaza…
