1.2.3 – Emerging and minor UK political parties
Your Party gathered in Liverpool last week for their first annual conference. 2,000 party members were selected by sortition (at random) to attend the event which was intended to agree to many aspects of the party’s future direction and principles.
The months leading up to conference suggested that all was not well in the new group. In September, the rolling out of party membership caused a spat between the co-founders, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, when Sultana’s team sent out details on how to join the party only for Corbyn and others to denounce this as ‘unauthorised’. This led to Sultana stating that the party was being run by a ‘sexist boys’ club’.
During November, independent MPs Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) and Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) both announced that they were withdrawing their support for Your Party, claiming to have faced smears and discrimination within the group.
The first day of conference, held on Saturday 29 November, saw further scenes of division, when co-founder Zarah Sultana chose to boycott the event for the day. The reason given for this was to express solidarity with members of the party who had been expelled due to their links with other left-wing parties (such as the Socialist Workers Party). Whilst it is not uncommon for political parties to have rules preventing dual membership with other political parties, Sultana branded the move a ‘witch-hunt’. However, supporters of Corbyn have rubbished Sultana’s position, stating that the party were simply following its own rules.
A further reason for division between Sultana and Corbyn was their different views on how the party was to be led going forward. With a co-leadership model being ruled out, Sultana had stated her preference for a collective leadership, whilst Corbyn preferred to have a single leader (presumably himself). On Sunday 30 November the party members voted by a margin of 51.6% to 48.4% to adopt a collective leadership, chaired by someone who was not allowed to be an MP, emphasising its credentials as a membership-led party (a not-so-subtle attack on Labour for being too top-down in its governance).
The party also voted to adopt Your Party as its permanent name with 37% of the vote, choosing it over Our Party (15%), Popular Alliance (25%), and For The Many (23%).
The infighting and disjointed launch to Your Party has seen the initial enthusiasm for the movement begin to wane, with many independent councillors around the country who had initially expressed interest in being associated with the party begin to distance themselves – especially those up for re-election in May. The space on the left of British politics – which Your Party would say Labour have abandoned in their quest for power – is now being filled by the Greens, who are regularly polling in double digits. An invitation to Sultana from Zack Polanski to join the Greens may have been meant as a side swipe owing to the disarray Your Party are in, but it also gives the sense that the Greens see themselves as the pre-eminent left-wing opposition to Labour.