Corbyn and Sultana in public spat over ‘Your Party’ membership system
Zarah Sultana has claimed she has been subjected to a “sexist boys’ club”, as the fledgling political party she and Jeremy Corbyn are setting up became enveloped in a row over a membership system.
On Thursday morning an invite went out to members of the unnamed party, so far described as “Your Party” in its campaign material, inviting them to officially sign up and give it financial backing.
But Mr Corbyn described this as an “unauthorised email” and warned supporters in a statement posted on social media not to sign up via the link.
The former Labour leader and Independent MP for Islington North also said “legal advice is being taken” over the incident, in the message, which also featured the names of four other Independent MPs who have set up an ad-hoc parliamentary group with Mr Corbyn.
They are Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Mohammed and Shockat Adam.
Any direct debits should be “immediately cancelled”, Mr Corbyn’s message said.
Warning
Writing on X, Ms Sultana appeared to respond to the warning from Mr Corbyn and his colleagues.
The Coventry South MP said: “After being sidelined by the MPs named in today’s statement and effectively frozen out of the official accounts, I took the step of launching a membership portal so that supporters could continue to engage and organise.”
Despite Mr Corbyn’s warning, she insisted supporters of Your Party should “sign up now” as the portal was a “safe, secure, legitimate” means of becoming a member of the party.
Ms Sultana added: “My sole motivation has been to safeguard the grassroots involvement that is essential in building this party.
“Unfortunately I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys’ club: I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely.”
Row
The row over whether the membership portal is legitimate is not the first time the two MPs have disagreed over the party’s set up.
Earlier this year, Ms Sultana announced she would be setting up the new left-wing political party with Mr Corbyn before he appeared ready to confirm this was the case.
Ms Sultana has also reportedly clashed with Independent MP for Blackburn Mr Hussain over their different views on trans rights.
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So, who’s going to implode first – Reform, ‘Your party’ or the Tories?
If I had to put a bet it would be Your Party. Its a one man personality cult a bit like George Galloway’s Respect. Arguably the same may be true of Reform, but Corbyn will be 80 by the time of the next election.
I would hope it’s Deform.
But my money is on Your Party. Corbyn and his “socally conservative” boys club has killed it
Time to merge with the Greens.
In Cymru, time to merge with Plaid.
Plaid needs to be serious about government. The left-left aren’t serious about government.
In Cymru for the Senedd I’m going Plaid. But in the GE I’m going Green
No. Let YP just DIE and everyone just move to the Greens. YP has nothing to bring to the table. YP just copied the Green manifest and added Social Conservatism and selective bigotry. Greens don’t need to deal with either of those additions
The Fruit & Nut party is off to a racing start.
There’s a reason the british left have never succeeded in creating a mass party that is able to make a breakthrough at the polls – and this sorry episode illustrates it perfectly. If you live in Wales and want meaningful and progressive change vote plaid cymru – there is no other credible alternative.
Entirely predictable.
I wonder if Beth Winter (the former Labour MP) will now come to realise that this non-entity holds no coherent strategy in Wales and has the courage to join Plaid Cymru? She spoke well at the indy rally in Carmarthen. Cannot see how Islington presents any future for Cynon.
Beth is brilliant.
But she should have noticed something was wrong when the OTHER YP lead rep in Cymru was Mark Serwotka the deeply unpopular Chief Exec of the PCS union. It’s a bigoted old boys club. Which is popular with bigoted old boys, but not so many other people. Beth is WAY too good for YP