Your Party has established its foundations, with members voting on the party’s name, leadership structure, membership status and a party constitution at its inaugural conference in Liverpool. But by the end of the weekend cracks were already beginning to show.
The group was established by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn to present a “full-blooded left-wing challenge” to Labour, said Politico. However, if the antics at the conference were anything to go by, it is “mixing deep idealism with the kind of factional splits that would make Monty Python blush”.
What happened at the launch?
Members of Your Party confirmed its formal name will remain the same. Just over 37% voted to make the placeholder name permanent, with other shortlisted options Popular Alliance (25%), For the Many (23%) and Our Party (14%) being overlooked. Sultana had complained that her preferred option of “Left Party” was not included in the options.
Members also voted in favour of dual membership – where individuals can hold active membership of two parties – by 69.2% to 30.8%. Another takeaway from the conference was the introduction of a collective leadership model by a narrow margin of 51.6% to 48.4% of votes. Sultana had previously championed the move as enabling “maximum member democracy”, whereas Corbyn called for a party structured on sole leadership.
On the eve of the conference, Sultana and Corbyn held separate rallies. Sultana’s comprised of two events at a Holiday Inn in Bristol, and welcomed speakers from Bristol Apartheid Free Zone, Stand up to Racism, the National Education Union and refugee charity Borderlands. Meanwhile at Corbyn’s rally, “there were squabbles and four people were evicted”, said Tanya Gold on UnHerd.
Co-founder Sultana had boycotted the first day of the conference in protest against an expulsion of members from the Socialist Workers Party. She described the decision as a “witch-hunt”. Party officials had said that entry was contingent on attendees not being members of other parties.
The left-wing party had aimed to attract around 13,000 people to the event, said the BBC. This was revised down to around 2,500, “which made the cavernous halls of the conference centre feel much emptier”.
Who won between Corbyn and Sultana?
The two co-founders have been at loggerheads since the party was launched in July, but their relationship hit new lows at the conference. “There would have been more chance of Ted Heath and Maggie deciding to be co-leaders of the Conservative Party than of this pair even being in the same room together,” said Stephen Pollard in The Spectator
Leadership disagreements aside, Sultana undoubtedly came out on top, said The New Statesman. Her “fiery remarks” about the exclusion of the Socialist Workers Party members on day one were well supported, and she “appears to have triumphed in every major debate about Your Party’s future except its name”.
But perhaps neither Corbyn nor Sultana emerged as the true leader of the political left, said James Heale in The Spectator. “Zack Polanski is the real winner of the Your Party conference”, as the “acrimonious affair” in Liverpool was on “display for all to see”. Polanski’s Green Party has seen membership rise sharply since he took over as leader in September. The frustrations within Your Party “are likely to only intensify” as it seems “it is Polanski, not Corbyn or Sultana, who is likely to dominate the British left for the near future.”
Will collective leadership work?
Your Party will be run by an executive committee of 11 elected members. This will include a chair, deputy chair and spokesperson to provide “public political leadership”. However, the collective model will exclude MPs from the top roles on the executive committee. Regional elections will take place in February, geared to choose the executive. Until then a “caretaker” committee of members will take on the leadership.
By establishing a collective leadership style, and also allowing members of rival parties to join, Your Party has “paved the way for maximum infighting in the months and years ahead”, said Heale in The Spectator. And it “runs the risk of repelling enthused members, who do not wish to partake in rancour and recriminations”.
Despite landmark decisions made over the party’s makeup at their first conference, core frustrations are ‘likely to only intensify in the near-future’