Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Former Labour MP Zarah Sultana has said she plans to launch a new party with Jeremy Corbyn, saying that Sir Keir Starmer’s government had “failed” voters during its first year in office.
Sultana said in a social media post late on Thursday that she and Corbyn would “co-lead the founding of a new party, with other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”.
However, an ally of Corbyn, who led the Labour party between 2015 and 2020, said he was frustrated Sultana had made the announcement without consulting him first.
“Zarah has really overplayed her hand,” according to the Corbyn ally, adding that “she jumped the gun to get the data and the donations”.
Labour removed the whip from Corbyn in November 2020 after a damning official report into antisemitism in the party while he was leader. He was re-elected as an independent MP at last year’s general election.
Corbyn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sultana’s announcement.
Sultana was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour party last year for voting against the government’s welfare policies.
In the post announcing her plans, Sultana said: “Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene and the two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises.”
Fractures in the new party before it has even launched point to stark challenges for a rival movement on the far left, which is known for infighting and ideological splits.
Despite the apparently botched launch, the threat of a new party underlines the risks to Starmer from those on the left seeking to capitalise on anger and disenchantment with his government.
A recent poll conducted by More in Common found that a new Corbyn-led party would win 10 per cent of the vote, reducing Labour’s share from 23 per cent to 20 per cent and reduce the Green Party’s share of the vote from 9 per cent to 5 per cent. It also found that this outfit would garner more support than any other party from 18- to 24-year-olds.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage — who has spoken previously about how splits on the left would benefit his populist right-wing party — appeared to relish the news on Thursday evening.
“If you thought Keir Starmer was having a bad week, it just got a whole lot worse,” he wrote on X.
A spokesperson for the party said it was “very happy”.
Corbyn had told ITV earlier in the week that a grouping of leftwing MPs “will come together” and that “there will be an alternative” to Labour, which he did not rule out leading.
