AN internal rift has broken out in Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new left-wing party, Your Party, after an “unauthorised” email prompted thousands of supporters to sign up through a membership portal.
The now public spat has seen both Corbyn and Sultana publish statements, with the former urging people to cancel their memberships, and the latter asking supporters to keep signing up.
The membership link was sent to all Your Party supporters on Thursday – an estimated 800,000 – resulting in 20,000 signing up to a direct debit subscription.
Some supporters have now shared online that they have cancelled their sign-up, with one writing: "What the hell is going on? Don’t waste the opportunity to change the way politics is done."
What happened?
The email with the sign-up link was sent to registered supporters, with Sultana posting it on her own social media and adding: "Right-wing bad faith actors are desperate to claim this link is fake. It isn’t. It’s safe and secure!"
She said some 20,000 supporters have already joined, paying £55 a year or £5 a month.
But hours later Corbyn, along with fellow independent MPs involved in the party, said the email urging people to pay for membership via a new website had not been authorised. Notably, Sultana's name was not on the list of signatures to this letter.
Corbyn has urged backers to ignore the email and cancel any direct debits, insisting official membership will only be handled via yourparty.uk.
The joint statement from Corbyn and four other MPs stressed that membership should follow the agreed roadmap, with regional assemblies and a founding conference later this year.
He added that "legal advice" is being taken, but was not clear who or what this involved.
Sultana responds
Not long after, Sultana responded with her side of the story.
She accused the group of running a “sexist boys’ club” that sidelined her, claiming she set up the portal to keep grassroots supporters engaged.
Sultana insisted that the decision to launch official memberships was "in line with the roadmap set out to members on Monday", and again stressed that the link is safe and secure.
The MP went on to explain further, giving insight into the factions already emerging in the project.
"I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely," she wrote in the statement. "They have refused to allow any other women with voting rights on the Working Group, blocking the gender-balanced committee that both Jeremy and I signed up to.
"It is also important to be transparent about why this situation has arisen. I do not believe members will accept Karie Murphy and her associates having sole financial control of members' money and sole constitutional control over our conference. This undermines the democratic principles we agreed to uphold."
Sultana also told supporters that MOU Operations Ltd, a group run by Jamie Driscoll, Beth Winter and Andrew Feinstein, would be holding and managing funds on behalf of members until the founding conference. She stressed that all money raised thus far is in this account.
She added: "I am calling on Jeremy to meet with me and agree to make public all agreed structures, processes and decision-making protocols."
What happens now?
Well, Your Party is still not an official party, with a founding conference scheduled for late November. It is also yet to be officially named.
It remains to be seen how Corbyn and the other MPs involved in the group will respond to the accusations of forming a "sexist boys' club".
It should also be noted that when Sultana first announced plans for the joint project with Corbyn, it was reported that she had jumped the gun before the former Labour leader was ready to go.
In addition, the party has seen some stumbling blocks around whether socially conservative views should be accepted within its folds.
This was largely sparked by Adnan Hussain, the independent MP for Blackburn and member of the adjacent Independent Alliance group, suggesting that trans women are not women, and are "encroaching" on women's spaces.
The existing factions within the group seem to have been deepened by this row, with lively debate around how Your Party should approach LGBT rights.
Corbyn’s team is now pushing for a pause on sign-ups until structures are agreed. At the time of writing, the website is still live.
