Confusion as Your Party co-convenor in Wales Beth Winter registers new political party with herself as leader
Martin Shipton
A new twist has occurred on the political left in Wales with the registration of a new party with former Cynon Valley MP Beth Winter as its leader.
People’s Party Wales, which also has the Welsh language name Plaid Y Werin, was registered with the Electoral Commission on Wednesday November 19.
The development is confusing because together with Mark Serwotka, the former general secretary of the PCS union, Ms Winter is co-convenor in Wales of Your Party, which was set up earlier this year by ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Coventry Zarah Sultana.
It is unclear whether People’s Party Wales is affiliated with Your Party, or if Ms Winter is starting an entirely new political organisation in Wales. A treasurer named as Huw Williams has also been listed as part of the registration document filed with the Electoral Commission.
The document states that People’s Party Wales intends to stand candidates in Wales, although that does not necessarily mean it will participate in next year’s Senedd election.
The birth of Your Party has been plagued by internal wrangling, including threats of legal action.
Earlier this week Ms Winter and Mr Serwotka issued a statement blaming unnamed officials in charge of Your Party UK for stalling the project, stating it was “beyond shameful” that the actions of a few officials were hindering what they were trying to achieve in Wales.
The statement followed threats of legal action relating to delays in getting money collected from thousands of members into a central bank account.
‘Shocked’
It said: “Recent statements and actions at Your Party’s UK level have left many of us – once genuinely hopeful about the creation of a credible left wing alternative – shocked and seriously concerned.
“This behaviour and the needless division it spreads is indefensible. It fails members, it fails supporters and it fails the country.
“In Wales, we are pleased to say that such attitudes and actions do not exist. Instead, there is a strong consensus and shared commitment to building a grassroots, community based politics that offers a democratic socialist alternative to the prevailing neo-liberal capitalist system.”
“There was strong support for the plan presented for an immediate way forward in Wales and for the development of all Wales interim and long term structures, strategic options for the Senedd election and core values and principles. These include being an anti-austerity, pro-peace and pro workers party that stands for the redistribution of wealth and power, public ownership of utilities underlined by tolerance and compassion towards others, and supporting local community developments, both economic and political.
“That we are being hampered by Your Party UK and our ability to take this enthusiasm and hard work forward in Wales is an understatement. Without the membership data, we are unable to contact everyone individually unless Your Party UK sign off on correspondence, which they have failed to do on several occasions. The inability to share this information with us here in Wales flies in the face of any commitment by Your Party UK to autonomy and self-determination for the people of Wales. We will not allow Wales to be treated with contempt, and it is beyond shameful that the actions of a few at the centre of Your Party at a UK level risks hindering what we are trying to achieve here in Wales.
“We cannot and will not allow this to happen. We want to be working in our communities here in Wales, representing and campaigning in the interests of the working people of Wales. We know we can do it given the support and information we require. 31,000 people in Wales signed up initially to the idea of a new left party. There is a clear appetite here to do things differently and to break with the established political and economic mores.” A Your Party source told Sky News it was unaware of the People’s Party Wales registration.
But the source added it was not out of the question for this to be a continuation of the Your Party Wales project, as the branch was always meant to have its own autonomy.
Ms Winter has been contacted for comment.
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Mark and Beth are two excellent Welsh campaigners… It’d be great to see both of more of them standing up for issues that matter and hopefully putting issues that don’t matter further down the list of talking points in the future.
Yes excellent welsh campaigners but who alas refuse to come out in favour of Welsh independence
Exactly! At the Carmarthen Yes march last year she spoke and addressed just about every issue under the sun, and even after substantial cries from the gathering for her to say something about independence, there was nothing.
This is another failed politician with nineteenth century fantasy politics Wales can do without.
Where do they stand on Indy for Cymru and Scotland? Are they prepared to hon I coalition with other progressives Ie. Plaid and the Greens to form a socialist government potentially? If not it’s a non starter
Policies are yet to be decided by members, but Jeremy Corbyn for one has stated that as internationalists we should stand for self-determination. We should back an independence referendum in Cymru and Scotland.
The left would generally back independence and the right oppose it.
Yes to self-detrmination but we first have to know what independence would mean and how it would work before taking a position on that. It’s not a left-right issue.
Independence “not a left-right issue”….thats an odd thing to say? Both Marx and Lenin believed in the fundamental right of nations to self determination (think they were on the left). PS. Welsh indy shouldnt be conditional on establishing a ‘workers paradise’ Lyn – the people of Wales will decide the political nature of Wales once independence has been secured (tho personally im very confident a Parliament in a indy Wales would be comfortably controlled by parties on the progressive side of politics).
This is the sort of nonsense, blind spot, fabricated history. Marx and Lenin believed in self determination…ask the people of the Baltic States, or Poland, or the other former soviet states.
agreed
The ‘cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country’ (to use the language of Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto) used to be the acknowledged starting point for socialist thought. Today the perspective of too many people has narrowed to nationalism. Yet the world has become ever more interdependent since that was written. Your statement ‘the people of Wales will decide the political nature of Wales once independence has been secured’ reflects that narrowed viewpoint. A core feature of the political nature of any country is how it relates to the rest of the world. Relations with its near… Read more »
I’m not sure they would wish to dilute their moral purity by having a coalition with Plaid and the Greens, which could actually have a good ticket together.
When he was labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was opposed to Scottish independence
Other contributors take note!
Fair play…The Fruit & Nut party is off to a racing start!
Only good if you like your chocs going crumbly on day one.
Popular Front, People’s Front, Popular People’s Front etc. The left’s weakness is that it always seems to put ideology before winning actual power. Though it may be that they don’t really want power, they just want to be professional protest politicians. Crazy.
You nailed it there Mike.
Sadly, I think that is the case. It’s no wonder that people are flocking to the Green’s. They seem to prefer the pulpit to Parliament.
You can’t be a successful professional protest politician without enabling a pantomime villain to protest against. Hence Corbyn gave us Boris who couldn’t have done it without him. Pres Farage will be their next achievement.
Causing another good laugh at Reform HQ.
Won’t be much longer before they catch the schism disease too. All groupings of cranks and nutters go the same way.
I admire your optimism.
Not optimism, just take a long hard look at them. It’s like the line up of caricature figures on Spitting Image but without the humorous element that we got from that show! That they get taken seriously at all as any kind of solution is a hell of a reflection on the so-called mainstream parties.
Yes, but I’m afraid the voters tend to like that sort of thing. Boris Johnson anyone?
Or to Wormwood Scrubs.
The ex-Labour Left continues to be a parody of itself. Politics has always been the art of compromise, something they don’t seem to want any part of.
Everything related to the UK is a problem. The UK needs to be dissolved and each nation go their own way.
Which lasts until the largest descends into a totalitarian state and decides to annex the rest.
Blimey…..even the Life of Brian’s hilarious parody of the sectarian nature of the British left doesnt come anywhere near to this fiasco!
This whole Your Party’s thing is just plain embarrassing now. Just a bunch of disorganised tankies who think they’re more pure socialists than the Greens and Plaid.
Is “pure socialist” code for communist?
Not quite, although I’m sure more than a few of them wouldn’t mind being labelled communist.
Isn’t a pure socialist someone who completely rejects private profit?
Couldn’t organize a p**s up in a brewery.That is not a throwaway remark,it is my considered opinion.
Beth Winter, Jamie Driscoll and Andrew Feinstein were Directors of MoU Operations who were responsible for around £800,000 collected on behalf of Your Party. They all resigned as Directors last month and Zarah Sultana took over MoU as the sole Director. This money is one of the rows engulfing Your Party. Meanwhile, Jamie Driscoll has said he will not get involved in Your Party. So, it would be no surprise if Beth Winter has another party project lined up for Wales if Your Party falls apart.
Electoral commission website now says : People’s Party Wales [De-registered 21/11/25]….what on earth is going on with these people?
The launch is so much more fun than managing long term. Solution? Launch a new one weekly or daily if it gives that much of a buzz.
Unfortunately, they contribute to the idea that all left-wing ideas are daft. They damage the socialist and progressive agenda, more interested in themselves than the electorate.