Your Corbyn/Sultana Party - Discussion thread

[fromorbit]

The new left party is going to have significant implications for gender and sex discussions on the left in the UK and in wider political debate as well. Lets talk about it.

Four of its prospective MPs are Gaza independents whose votes and comments in the Commons indicate a social conservative background . One of them Adnan Hussain has already got into a row on X with prospective members over his social conservatism.

The hilarious breakdown of the Islamo-left alliance
The progressive left has suddenly noticed that most British Muslims are not exactly woke.
This uneasy marriage got a reality check last week when a Green Party councillor and practising Muslim, Mothin Ali, appeared reluctant to sign a set of ‘pledges’ on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ Greens, Feminist Greens and other similar groups. The MP for Blackburn, ‘Gaza Independent’ Adnan Hussain, then waded into the debate. ‘It’s no secret that Muslims tend to be socially conservative’, Hussain said. ‘Is there a space on the left to create a broad enough church to allow Muslims an authentic space, just as it does other minority groups?’
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/08/04/the-hilarious-breakdown-of-the-islamo-left-alliance/

The initial statement for Your Party focuses on poverty, fighting the system and Gaza, but makes no mention of progressive social issues, . This already signals something significant.
https://www.yourparty.uk/statement

Zarah Sultana on the other hand has already signaled out trans rights as a key principal in a recent interview which has received push back from others. Discussion here:

The Elephant in the Room for Zara Sultana’s “Your Party”
https://labourheartlands.com/the-elephant-in-the-room/
But here’s the rub. Sultana also pledged to “resolutely” advocate for a pro-trans socialist programme. She insists these discussions must happen openly and democratically.

That sounds fine in theory. In practice, the left has already shown itself utterly incapable of having this conversation without collapsing into authoritarian cancel culture.

Can the Left Have an Honest Trans Debate Without Cancelling Women?

For years, women who raise legitimate questions about the impact of gender self-ID on female-only spaces, or about the safeguarding implications highlighted by the Cass Review, have been branded as bigots and driven out of the movement. “Demonising trans people” is often code for “asking difficult but necessary questions.” If Your Party repeats this mistake, it will bleed support from countless socialist women before it even begins.

The truth is, many women will not get involved in this project precisely because of the Corbyn–Sultana line on trans issues. Others may hope the problem quietly goes away. It won’t. Nor is this a side issue: women’s rights are not negotiable add-ons to socialism; they are foundational. To ignore them is to build on sand.

TAs online and who are planning to join are already girding up for war, it is looking messy.

I can see a number of factions inside the new party who are going to make things complicated:

Muslim social conservatives - as mentioned they will be a major part of the party's voting bloc.

Old school Marxists who regard gender ideology as neo liberal capitalist identity politics and a distraction from class.

Realists who will see gender stuff as a marginal issue which needs to be sidelined because it is so toxic and unpopular with the general public.

Last but certainly not least actual left wing feminists who see through gender nonsense and are not going to be quiet about it !!

I expect fireworks over gender at the the party's initial conference supposedly to be held in November. TAs will attempt to make genderism a key principal of the party and will face resistance. Whether it happens or not it will be another nail in the TAs attempt to pretend the left inherently back neoliberal capitalist ideas like genderism. The big terfy mother elephant is going to be at the conference because women keep doing awkward things like existing and saying things.

Corbyn's position is going to be a focus in this because for all his occasional signalling on trans issues like stating pronouns and saying mantras it is not a core issue for him, and moreover he doesn't believe in it narrowly . His circles have long contained gender critical people who he has refused to cancel, because Corbyn for all his faults believes in open debate. So I think this could be a wedge issue between those around Sultana and Corbyn. There are already signs of disagreements between them over other issues like antisemitism:
Sultana: Corbyn 'capitulated' on antisemitism definition
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79lr40rqelo

Surely the point is it is not for others to decide where other people's interests lie.

Yes and no. The problem is that some things come down to facts.

A lot of people thought Brexit would improve the NHS, public services and the economy. It hasn't. That's not a subjective question of somebody's right to decide where their interests lie, it's a factual one.

If on the other hand you voted Brexit because you believed it would make it more socially acceptable to be racist, then you were right. That has indeed transpired, so if that was the interest you were pursuing then yes, it was up to you to decide upon it.

Similarly, any even slightly critical and numerate analysis of Farage's policies and intentions indicates that a Reform government will make most working people poorer, not richer. So if a person on a modest income decides that is where their (economic) interest lies, they're simply wrong. Sure, they have the democratic right to make that decision. I also have the right to point out that they're wrong.

If we didn't have such squeamishness about the fact that economics actually operates according to certain semi-predictable principles and many people make fundamental mistakes in how they think about it, perhaps we wouldn't keep making such monumental fuckups as a country.

I really don't want to get into rehashing that whole business, but it would have been much better handled if someone had noticed the polling that 87% of the Jewish community believed Corbyn was antisemitic, and knowing it's basically impossible to get 87% of Jews to agree on anything, said "we've got a problem here and we need to address it."

McDonnell did that, to his credit, and even Seumas Milne a bit. Not that I think they're very invested in the issue, but they could see it was damaging and wanted to make it go away.

Most of Corbyn's supporters preferred to stick their heads in the sand and say "well obviously Jeremy has no case to answer because Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein vouch for him." I don't think this did Corbyn any favours in the long term.

Brendan O'Neill 😃

https://archive.ph/axQ7n

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/19/the-collapse-of-your-party-is-bloody-hilarious/

Those articles are three years apart, btw. Jackie Walker was suspended twice from the Labour party, before finally being expelled.

Here's a thing she said:

During the training event, Walker also questioned why Jewish organisations, including schools, said they needed high security.

Lovely woman.

Is there anything about this that isn't funny?

Yes, the fact that it means there's still nothing much resisting the UK's descent into outright fascism in 2029. Take a look at the USA and tell us how funny it is.

Agreed. The whole Trans Rights bit that preceeded this should have rung enough alarm bells. (Maybe it did, and DID in fact lead the others to try and force her out, I don't know).

"It's a genuine grass roots party run by its members, who'll decide the policies democratically . . . . . . . . but obviously they'll agree with me." 😀

Judaism is based ( with few exceptions) on descent, so if you do a dna test it will identify you as Jewish, so technically it is a race and a religion.

That article is a thing of beauty. This stands out:

This is a party led by the grandaddy of the lame left, woke upstart Sultana and the so-called Gaza Independents – those small-c conservative Muslim men elected to the Commons last year largely for their opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza. A party that’s a mix of pink-haired muppets who think you can have a schlong and be a woman and straight-laced religious men who know very well what a woman is and pray separately from them every Friday? Good luck with that.

As a great way of summing it all up.

Yes, just ask British jews about their increased risk of breast cancer. But sure, they're not a race! 🙄

NHS England is now offering free BRCA gene testing for anyone living in England, aged 18 or over with one or more Jewish grandparent, of any type of Jewish origin (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi etc).

The NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme - Jewish BRCA

ETA: Agreeing with you there @RainbowBagels , disagreeing hard with @Abhannmor .

Also prostate cancer. I know its a derail but its quite a massive increased risk. My DS's have a Jewish grandparent.

A third group has entered the fray. Reported (boosted?) by Novara, Our Party (did you see what they did there) are calling on all MPs to resign from Your Party in order to build a grass roots activist party

https://x.com/novaramedia/status/1969048436465938901

EXCLUSIVE: A group of around two dozen grassroots organisers has launched a surprise bid to lead the new leftwing party, provisionally called Your Party, after a public spat broke out between co-founders Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn.

The group, calling itself Our Party, is drawn from the trade union, tenants’ union, anti-racist and pro-Palestine movements, as well as local Your Party groups. Among them are renters’ union organiser Josh Virasami and Palestine solidarity organiser Jeanine Hourani.

Our Party's petition, which it is calling on members of the public to co-sign, demands that the six Independent Alliance (IA) MPs – including Sultana, Corbyn and the four “Gaza independents” – step back from the leadership and allow members to take over.

“The MPs got us this far, but now it's time to hand over the reins,” the group said in a statement. “The people should take things forward from here.”

And this is the signed open letter

https://www.ourparty.org.uk/#openletter

Anahita Zardoshti, Algorithm Engineer, Ki Insurance, London

Sumai Abdirizak, Student, rs21, London

Siraj Izhar, artist activist, London

Surely it would be better if left leaning people focussed on Labour. Did you imagine “Your Party” would win the election?

It just keeps getting better 🍿

Judean People's Front or People's Front of Judea?

It is a chef’s kiss of an article.

They don’t believe in compromise, so it’s hardly surprising they can’t even compromise amongst themselves to achieve progress of their new party. That’s where puerile student politics gets you imo.

He’s just perfectly characterised everyone involved 🤣

Your Party – it’s not my party, mate – was announced back in July to squeals of delight in the bakeshops of Dalston. Sixth-form sulk Zarah Sultana said she was quitting Labour and would co-lead a new party with the Albert Steptoe of dusty old leftism, Jeremy Corbyn. Hilariously cosplaying as Rosa Luxemburg, Sultana said in her vainglorious letter of resignation that Britain faces a choice between ‘socialism or barbarism’. Turns out that where Luxemburg fought a revolution against the literal German Empire, Comrade Sultana can’t even set up a naff party for the Moët Marxists and dickless identitarians that make up the modern left.

I feel a bit guilty for enjoying that article so very much.

I'm still left and libertarian-leaning in terms of politics, but this shower are so utterly, unbelievably fucking useless and self-regarding that I can only hold them in complete contempt and enjoy the schadenfreude.

How bloody dare they be this smug and incompetent? Why are a superannuated student and a vain old fool the best the left can do?

In an ideal world, sure. But Labour clearly has no interest in or courage to actually oppose Reform, and are completely focused instead on trying to prove they can be just like them.

I can see how to an external observer, the obvious way forward would be for leftists to exert pressure as Labour members. But as an ex-Labour member, it just doesn't work like that. The Labour party is entirely corrupt and autocratic now and there is simply no way for members to do that. Sad, but that's the way it is.

I don't know how many seats the new party might have got in the next election or how that would interact with an incredibly unpredictable result across the board. But opposition to fascism has to start from somewhere.

'Sultana threw a tantrum. She raged against the ‘right-wing bad-faith actors’ calling her membership drive ‘fake’. I hear you’re right-wing now, Jeremy.'

😂

I'm not even a little bit sorry. These people deserve all the ridicule, and it's cheered me right up.

If they were smart about it, Sultana's antics provide the perfect opportunity to throw her overboard, and also lose the Trots who are her main cheerleaders. (You want to have RS21 in your party? Seriously?)

Think of it in the same way as the Rupert Lowe saga in Reform. I hear that he's an excellent constituency MP, but he is absolutely unable to function as part of a team, and even if losing him was messy, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Losing Lowe and winning Danny Kruger seems like a net gain to me.

But this is the UK left, so of course they won't be smart about it. They'll be ideological about it. I'm not hearing anyone saying "I agreed with what Zarah was saying, but her trying to sneak in ahead of the rest to get control of the data and money could land us in some serious legal diffs."

Was she really charging people £55 to join the non party? So very egalitarian.

Notwithstanding the fact she was wrong to do it the way she did, as I've already said: You do know political parties need funds to operate, right? And those that are not bankrolled by millionaire donors on the right can only get those funds from membership subscriptions to even be in the game?

I really wonder how people think politics works sometimes.

I’m also an ex Labour member. But fail to see how splitting the left vote would help.