Beth Winter and Mark Serwotka back new left wing party fronted by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana
Martin Shipton
A former Welsh Labour MP and an ex-general secretary of one of Britain’s biggest unions have backed the as yet unnamed party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
Until last year’s general election, Beth Winter was the Labour MP for Cynon Valley, while Mark Serworka, originally from Aberdare, was general secretary of the PCS union from 200 until 2024.
The pair have signalled that the new party will operate in Wales and will presumably field candidates at next year’s Senedd election.
Joint statement
In a joint statement of their own published on social media, Ms Winter and Mr Serwotka say: “We warmly welcome this joint statement issued by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, committing to leading together the building of a desperately needed new party.
“It will be a party that espouses the principles of socialism, campaigning for a more equal society, for redistribution of wealth and power, protecting our public services, strengthening workers’ rights and free trade unions, preventing climate collapse, standing for peace in the world, and for defending our democratic rights.
“We fully support these objectives and we are actively considering how such a party can adequately represent all the nations and regions of the UK, in particular Wales, ensuring we rightly have the kind of autonomy and self-determination that reflects our news and demands.
“Here in Wales, across the UK, people are struggling with increasing inequality, economic injustice, democratic decay and climate collapse.People are tired of being let down, of being promised so much and being given so little, seeing the wealthy prosper while cuts hit their pockets. People are searching for something new, for a sense of belonging and purpose that will improve their lives.
“This is a once in a generation moment that confirms what so many of us have felt for a long time: people are crying out for a real alternative. We need a new kind of politics. To build a force that belongs to the people, and that is shaped by the grassroots movements that are already driving change from the ground up. One that is rooted in care, freedom, tolerance, collaboration, justice and the struggles of ordinary people. Politics that puts people, planet and peace before profit or political positioning.
“For us here in Wales this means ensuring that any such new party will be organised in a way that it enables us, the people of Wales, to determine our priorities and policies to meet our needs and forge our future.
“Such a party that is of the people and for the people of Wales, alongside all the nations and regions of the UK, built on solid socialist principles and democratic organisation.”
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At last.
As a Welsh Nationalist although I would never vote for Jeremy Corbin’s new political party would like to see him dismantle Labour brick by brick down to its bare bone foundation. Labour is a party infected that needs lancing. Welsh Labour are responsible for all the social ills in Wales over the past 26 years. This made worse by lack of Senedd powers. This done deliberately to frustrate and stagnate. At present we have Anglocentric UK Labour and far-right Conservative MPs at Westminster , whose main purpose is power supremacy over Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland, their bank balance,… Read more »
While I grievingly agree with much of what you say about Labour, I think the new Left party is a positive force. It’s not about attacking Labour and knowing Corbyn it won’t. If Labour did what Labour was established to do the new party would be no threat. It wouldn;t exist. Because the new party is aiming to do precisely what the original Labour did. It was still doing it under Blair though largely due to Gordon Brown. Under Starmer nuff said.
But let’s celebrate the joy of a proper Leftist party focused on equality and redistribution.
Sorry but what did that “original labour party” you speak of do for Wales exactly? Shameful catastrophes like Aberfan and Tryweryn occured in Wales under the watch of that original labour party. Alas there’s also not been much “equality and distribution” in Wales despite Labour’s dominance of Welsh politics for over a century, with poverty rates in Wales being consistently among the worst in the UK for decades.
“Let’s celebrate the joy of a proper Leftist party focused on equality” that will destroy Plaid’s chances of winning the Senedd elections and hand the next UK General Election to the far-right Reform UK.
I don’t think that devolution should exclusively be the property of the left. I think that the right-wing case for devolution needs to be made.
There is a case to be made that devolution restores Britain to something more like how it was before 1066.
I agree. Not everyone on the left is sympathetic to devolution. Some because they dislike nationalism of any kind and see it as divisive. Others because they fear that decentralisation can lead to a race to the bottom. This was George Galloway’s argument against Scottish independence in the run up to the 2014 referendum.
You got to realise that this new Left party is largely an English party. While I welcome it, this party is for the benefit of the English people who will given an alternative to the Liberal democrats and the Green party. For the English, there was no alternative for those that identify as socialist or communist. BUT, the current system is a hard monopoly capitalist regime which is very politically and economically centralised in power, ownership and decision making. We need to transfer wealth to the people. Unfortunately, socialism has seen power and wealth transfer to the state or government… Read more »
If I was in England then I would vote for the Liberal Democrats. Pro-EU, pro-devolution and pro-electoral reform. Corbyn is a Lexiteer, does he support closer ties to the EU?
There already is a socialist party in Wales. A party that has much better policies on key welsh issues – like welsh indy, a proper devolution setllement and wales having full control over its own resources – than any party set up by two MPs based in England will ever have….and that party is plaid cymru!
REALLY!!!
The three words that stand out to expose the real problem: …GIVEN SO LITTLE… You don’t live life by demanding that you are ‘GIVEN’ by others, regardless of how little you chose to put in to society. The Labour (aka WORK) party strived to represent those who would work to the best of their ability, EDUCATING them for their lives, knowing that they would be treated and protected if ILL, then pensioned when OLD. Anyone in this country can still CHOSE a life where they put nothing into society, but should not be surprised that those who do contribute have… Read more »
I see you resort to childish name calling once again.
I suppose you support disabled people being thrown into poverty and Rachel Reeves changing the law to siite unscrupulous lenders and the pension age rising again.
This is insane and will assist one party – the far-right English nationalist Reform UK. This Pty will also have a negative impact on Plaid and will mean they have zero chance of winning next year’s election. Let’s take south east Wales, where Plaid are not doing well (Plaid got a pathetic 7.2% in yesterday’s Llanrumney bye-election). At the moment left-wing progressive voters have one an alternative to Labour who have a chance of winning seats – Plaid. Now they’ll have Corbyn’s Pty, which the media will be talking about nearly as much as Reform. Tens of thousands of potential… Read more »
Corbyn’s Left party is an English party. It is irrelevant to Cymru Wales, and the Welsh people are not English and never will be. We will be proud once again to be European citizens of the EU. Corbyn is very unlikely to give Wales an independent nation which we need. Instead, Corbyn will impose a centralised socialist UK onto Wales, too similar to what is now happening today with ‘two parties conspiring together’ current arrangement. I would be happy if I am wrong but this is what we see so far. We have seen how centralised planned economies panned out… Read more »
Oh I dunno some of us interbred lol. Some of us have welsh heritage, born in england now live in wales (for decades) and want to see Wales stand on its own two feet. I don’t personally see Corbyn’s new party making any inroads in Wales (yet) it seems largely to be an English thing but the detail is yet to come out. That being said we could do with better progressive taxation where the wealth hoarders are made to pay their fair share and the wealth creators (the people actually doing the work at the bottom of the food… Read more »
Thank goodness for Jezza.
Here we go another party that believes you can run an economy by people cleaning other peoples windows…and more selfish and up their own b******e.
Last time Jeremy was in charge membership of the Labour Party surged and all that happened was Jeremy gave Boris a thumping majority and the red wall. I wonder who Jeremy will give a thumping majority to this time and is there something akin to the red wall he can give them as well.