A group of members have split from Your Party, citing disillusionment with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and accusing the party of “blowing the big promise of 800,000 registrations last summer”.
On Sunday, 250 people – many of whom are members of Your Party branches in England, Scotland and Wales – joined the Zoom call and voted to found a new left-wing party called the Socialist Federation.
Among them were several members of the Grassroots Left – the tab on which Zarah Sultana ran in the Your Party elections earlier this year – including former Momentum organizer Max Shanly (although he briefly attended the conference, Shanly is not a member of the Socialist Federation). A source close to the Sultana confirmed that she has no involvement in the establishment of this new party.
Corbyn won the election as parliamentary leader of Your Party at the end of February this year with his The Many list, winning 14 seats on the party’s Central Executive Committee, compared to the core Left’s seven. Grace Lewis, a former independent councilor in Coventry, was also elected to the CEC alongside Sultan as part of the grassroots left list, but has since left the committee and is joining the Socialist Federation. Lewis was elected as a public office holder, but lost her seat in the local elections and thus left the CEC.
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Your Party’s first electoral test came in May, when the party supported several independent groups in local elections. The party also fielded 20 candidates in 17 wards, but none were elected. Her profile has diminished somewhat since the beginning of this year.
In an opening statement shared on X, the new group said its members had “lost patience” with Your Party and Corbyn and accused the party of showing “only contempt” for its grassroots supporters. He continued: “The Socialist Federation is a temporary organization with a long-term aim. We want to join forces to form something that neither Labor nor the Greens can claim to be: a party with unwavering socialist principles, actively building working-class power in communities and in the workplace.”
The group plans to hold a national conference on June 28, with an in-person Congress taking place in the Midlands later this year. They did not answer him New Statesman’s request for comment.
Responding, a spokesperson for Your Party said: “Our focus remains on building a broad, democratic, socialist party capable of delivering meaningful change.” They added that new members are joining Your Party every day and said: “Our priority is to support members to organize in their communities and build a movement capable of challenging both this Labor government and the growing threat of the far right.”
(Further reading: Two visions for the future of Labour)
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