When Two Tribes Go To War!
Jeremy Corbyn's gang are locked in a civil war with Zarah Sultana's gang over the future of a new far-left which still doesn't have an official name.
Accusations, complaints and resignations abound as the warring factions pretend they are all 'good comrades' - yet the truth is they're fighting like ferrets in a sack.
Read the full story via the link below to the Times.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/your-party-jeremy-corbyn-zahra-sultana-2rk358wr5Zarah Sultana risks being blocked from speaking at the inaugural conference of the socialist party she co-founded with Jeremy Corbyn amid renewed infighting and concern about inroads being made by the Green Party.
The firebrand Coventry South MP may be prevented from addressing delegates at the first gathering of Your Party, which takes place in Liverpool on November 29-30.
She remains locked in a dispute with Corbyn and those personally loyal to him over questions of leadership and structure. Her allies are also accused of withholding hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations needed to run the conference.
Sultana has agreed to return more than £500,000 over the coming weeks, but will only do so in tranches and once costs are deducted. She has separately been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office for gathering data and funds through what Corbyn’s allies call a “fake” membership website.
A senior Your Party source said that Sultana, 32, would need to be on speaking terms with those organising the conference to have any clarity about when, and whether, she would speak. “The problem is she isn’t on anything approaching speaking terms,” the source said.
Another insider said: “We don’t want this to become the Zarah show.”
Sultana and Corbyn in September 2021 - LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES
The civil war engulfing the party has assumed renewed urgency because of the rise of Zack Polanski’s Greens. His platform of “eco-populism” has led his party to achieve parity with Labour in some polls and eclipse the Conservatives in others. He has been buoyed by tens of thousands of new members and millions in funds. The party, which is polling at 17 per cent, has raked in £4 million in ten weeks.
Those involved in Your Party have bemoaned the fact that Polanski is seizing headlines — and left-wing supporters — as they resolve a personality spat that erupted within minutes of the party’s launch in July.
Those concerns were laid bare in this weekend’s episode of The State of It, the new podcast from the Times and Sunday Times.
Corbyn’s allies belong to a faction called The Collective and tend to believe he ought to lead the party, at least on an interim basis, until the spring. Sultana’s friends belong to the so-called Memorandum of Understanding Group and have misgivings about some of Corbyn’s aides from his time in opposition.
The infighting has led to questions about what the party’s electoral pitch is likely to be as the Greens plunder left-wing and Muslim votes. Sultana has sought to portray herself as more authentically anti-Israel than other leftists.
Zack Polanski - MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES
Last week, Adnan Hussain, an independent MP, resigned over the party’s “toxic culture” and complaints about its exclusion of those with conservative values.
Even since then the rift has deepened, with a founding member reporting Sultana to the parliamentary standards commissioner. Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor who rose to prominence representing Shamima Begum and a Syrian teenager who sued Tommy Tobinson, has said Sultana had breached the MPs code of conduct. He singled out the funds raised and withheld by her supporters.
In a complaint he wrote: “Taken together, these actions represent serious departures from the standards of selflessness, integrity, openness and honesty.”
Sultana has previously complained of “baseless attacks on my character [that] are politically motivated”.
