This is not how to launch a new party

I’ll start with a little confession: there was a time when I thought I was a socialist.

I didn’t actually join a party, I just sold the paper… and was active in groups associated with these left-wing parties.

I was involved in campaigns related to the NHS, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ inclusion and, later, opposition to the Iraq War. Inevitably this brought me into contact with many on the left of politics. I was also a trade unionist, which again inevitably led to encountering certain types of people – many of whom I retain a lot of respect for.

So, during the 1990s and early 2000s, I often found myself trying to make sense of the world with members of the Scottish Socialist Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers’ Party, the Workers’ Revolutionary Party, Respect, Solidarity, and even the impossibilists of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Not to mention various factions within the Labour Party (of which I was a member for a short time) and the Trade Union movement.

As I said, this was all part of a journey in which I was trying to make sense of the world. With hindsight, it certainly proved a useful experience, but eventually I realised I was no socialist at all… more a social democrat with philosophically liberal inclinations. I could never be a socialist and certainly not a revolutionary – I was more of a radical, but perhaps not in the way left-wingers would understand it.

Why do I say this? Because, having involved myself in left-wing politics for the biggest part of a decade, the sad spectacle of Your Party’s launch is utterly predictable. Anyone who has experienced the realities of left-wing politics, and the factionalism it inevitably descends into, will appreciate that the very concept of Your Party was always going to be the triumph of hope over experience. Some of us who know how elections work might be harsher, and consider it a hopeless fantasy doomed to failure and the delivery of a Reform government.

The launch of Your Party has been protected and fraught. This is not how to launch a new party. In the time it has taken to organise itself sufficiently to adopt its temporary name as permanent, it has been torn apart by infighting, seen MPs supposedly committed to its success abandon ship, and been overtaken by the Greens – not only in membership terms but also, most crucially, as the most like repository for left-wing voters unhappy with Labour. Most notably it lacks any cohesive leadership.

But what about Corbyn and Sultana you may ask? Corbyn may be idolised by his supporters but he is not, and never has been, a tactician. Neither is he a natural leader. All this should be patently obvious. I have to say I used to love him in the role of awkward backbench rebel in the Blair years, but that is not in itself leadership. He always seemed happier as an outsider and his leadership of the Labour Party often appeared reluctant. 

How a party is born often sets the tone for what follows, and not merely because first impressions matter. The messy launch of Your Party doesn’t just reflect organisational hiccups: it reveals structural weaknesses in leadership, vision and coherence in addition to a lack of strategic discipline. Corbyn may be passionate and principled, but he lacks the leadership qualities needed to build and steer a serious national political party. The idea that this man can finally unite the Left into a single party is a pipe dream. 

Much has been said about Corbyn’s time as Labour leader, some of it unfair. But what is inescapable is that he was not a performer, often failed to project authority and seemed unable to make decisions. That need not have proved his undoing but his lack of clarity on the key issue of the day (Brexit) and his poor response to crisis management undermined his leadership. He lacked a clear sense of direction and purpose. His most critical failure was the anomaly that he was simultaneously too idealistic and consensus-driven.

All of this is now being brought to Your Party.  A man who is supposed to be able to unite the country couldn’t even unite delegates in support of his single leader proposal on Sunday; the party will instead have some kind of collective leadership. Given my experience of left-wing politics, I’m afraid that doesn’t inspire me with confidence in regards the longer-term stability of the project. It also suggests that Corbyn is out of step with his closest allies.

The lengthy launch of Your Party has been chaotic, uncertain, confusing, acrimonious and even farcical. Why should anyone believe that its future will be any different? This article in The Guardian, which highlights many of the difficulties the new party has faced, quotes a source that claims “we had six MPs and four factions”. The disastrous first conference last weekend, which saw Zarah Sultana boycott the first day and delegates expelled on arrival, underlined poor organisational discipline and suggested a failure among its senior personnel to either foresee or prevent such a farce developing.

Ah yes, Zarah Sultana. Not so long ago, she was being touted as a co-leader with Corbyn; several media outlets even referred to the new entity as the Corbyn-Sultana Party. I think the kindest thing to say about her is that she reminds me of the type of person I was 25 years ago. I have no doubt that she is genuine, but publicly briefing against colleagues and making complaints of “witch hunts”, “faceless bureaucrats” and a toxic culture” does not suggest she is suited to leadership. When her party most needed cohesion and unity, she withdrew. Her decision-making in recent months has resulted in avoidable internal conflict, raising questions about her own judgement (especially around finances). The public airing of deep distrust and the use of denunciatory language risks alienating potential allies and creating long-term instability.

In fact, she already appears to have alienated two MPs: Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, the latter quitting because of "false allegations and smears made against [him]". I genuinely think Sultana means well, but good intentions are never enough in politics. Your Party needs someone good at coalition-building, someone who can bind people together. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Sultana’s complaints, the end result is distrust, division and fragmentation. 

Frankly, it’s hard to feel that Sultana hasn’t been stunningly naïve throughout – why else would she be surprised that a left-wing movement would have authoritarian impulses? Why would she feel that emotionally charged criticisms would be anything other than polarising? 

Your Party is not even a socialist party, whatever its supporters want to think. A socialist party would never see Pro-Palestinian social conservatives like Hussain and Mohamed as figures around whom a mass left-wing party could be created. Meanwhile, people on the left of the Labour Party such as former shadow chancellor John McDonnell (author of Another World Is Possible and a better tactician than many imagine) and Rebecca Long-Bailey are sensibly avoiding Your Party.  Diane Abbott, who is currently sitting as an Independent MP having had the Labour whip withdrawn, advised Corbyn not to form a new party and will not be joining it. If these Corbynites can’t back the new project, presumably because they can see it is doomed to failure, why should anyone else believe in it?

With opportunistic former Tory MPs defecting to Reform on a regular basis, it’s telling that the appeal of Your Party among parliamentarians is limited to a few independent MPs elected under a Pro-Palestine stance.  

Principled stands aren’t enough, and a new grassroots party needs more to unite is that support for Palestine. Without a steady, unifying figure I cannot see Your Party even being around at the next General Election, never mind making much of an electoral impact. This painful launch makes Change UK – remember them? – look professional and organisationally competent by comparison. 

I am far from averse to the idea of a left-wing party playing a significant role in British politics, but this is not that party and this is certainly not how to create a party. Contrast this disaster with the Greens under Zack Polanski and you’ll gain an appreciation of why decisive, clear and leadership matters. Polanski has what neither Sultana, Corbyn nor anyone else in Your Party does: a clear sense of purpose and a unifying demeanour. He’s also good with the media and knows how to balance idealism with pragmatism.

A fledgling movement like Your Party needs more than energy or ideals — it needs realism, organisation, strategy, and robust leadership. It also needs a clear, coherent identity and narrative, a strong organisation and a broad appeal. Ideally, it would also have competence, credibility and public trust. At the moment, it has none of these.

If only the party could find a leadership that combines vision with realism, and flexibility with clarity… the kind of leadership that turns disillusionment into hope, and hope into votes. Without it, Your Party will simply become the latest left-wing party to be loud in rhetoric but limited in impact, destined to become another cautionary tale of passion without direction.