A NEW left-wing political party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana could prove a “headache” for Labour and should be taken “seriously”, a leading polling expert has said.
Keiran Pedley, the research director, public affairs UK, for the polling firm Ipsos, said he thought the nascent party could “pretty well” under Westminster’s first-past-the-post voting system which “rewards a geographical concentration of votes”.
Writing on social media, Pedley said that the “most important thing any new left wing party could do is have a simple name”.
“None of this united socialist workers of Great Britain yadda yadda nonsense,” he went on.
“Something clean. The new left party or similar. Does what it says on the tin. See Brexit party for details.”
Pedley’s comments came after Professor John Curtice told The National that it was “not inconceivable” that Labour Cabinet ministers including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood could lose their seats at the next General Election.
“Just look at the size of their majorities and look at how far Labour’s vote’s fallen,” Curtice said.
At the last election, Starmer’s vote almost halved, Streeting’s majority was reduced to just 528, and Mahmood’s vote fell by 53%, all facing pro-Palestine independent challengers.
Pro-Palestine independents took four seats at the 2024 election, most notably Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth’s defeat at the hands of Shockat Adam in Leicester South.
Curtice, however, also questioned whether the new Corbyn-Sultana party could organise efficiently enough to be an electoral force.
“The crucial question is now: will the fight next year’s local and devolved elections? Are they going to be up and ready? At the moment, they’re engaging on a consultation about a name,” the polling expert said.
He also noted that Sultana’s initial public announcement of the new party appeared to have taken Corbyn by surprise.
Earlier in the week, Corbyn announced that 600,000 people had signed up for the new party, outstripping Labour at its peak under his own leadership (at 565,000 in 2017).
Corbyn said: “Up and down the country, there is huge appetite for the policies that are needed to fix society in 2025: public ownership, wealth redistribution, housing justice, and a foreign policy based on peace and human rights.
"For too long, people have been denied a real political choice. Not anymore. 600,000 people have already signed up to build a real alternative to inequality, poverty and war. This is just the beginning.
“We are an unstoppable movement for equality, democracy and peace – and we are never, ever going away.”
