Is Jeremy Corbyn’s new party the fastest-growing political force in Britain?

It claims to have half a million backers even before it has chosen a name, but can the new left-wing party turn the momentum into electoral success? Sean O’Grady looks at the path ahead

To the consternation of their many critics, the new party launched by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana claims it has already signed up some 500,000 supporters. This makes them bigger and faster-growing than any other UK political grouping – and recalls the heady days of a decade ago when a surge of new members made Corbyn the most improbable leader of the Labour Party in its history. Even so, success is still far from assured.

What’s the latest?

Well, the recruitment is cracking along and polling for the embryonic party is also encouraging; one in six British voters, according to YouGov, say they are likely to consider voting for a new left-wing party led by Corbyn. After all, he did manage to score 40 per cent at the 2017 general election, more than any Labour leader since Tony Blair (albeit deflating to 32 per cent in 2019).

Sultana, the self-declared co-leader (some say that Corbyn seems uncomfortable with the title), has given an interview to Novara explaining her reasons for leaving Labour, which include, she says, its “austerity” policies and support for Israel over the war in Gaza. She declared it a “dead” party, morally and electorally. The hostility between her and the Labour leadership is palpable, if not surprising: “Keir Starmer said: ‘Well, if you don’t like it, leave.’ So I did, and Jeremy and I – along with millions of others – are going to build something new and different. And they are rattled.”

Has the new party got a name yet?

No. “Your Party” was a working title, and not a great one for web search, and Sultana says she has an alternative: “I think it should be called ‘The Left’ or ‘The Left Party’, because it says what it is on the tin. That is something I will be pitching.” That might also not work so well on Google. Corbyn’s first grouping after he left Labour was called the “Peace & Justice Project”. A public vote to decide the name is an option, although that could mean these serious socialists urge people to back a Votey McVoteface government. Independent Alliance is one label for the loose parliamentary association.

What’s going well?

A certain amount of momentum, reflecting some of the excitement the original Momentum movement once had. It may not be a surprise that James Schneider, the founder of Momentum and a former Corbyn adviser, is now reportedly involved in the new party. They’ve now got six MPs in their Independent Alliance grouping, including a number from areas with a relatively large Muslim and/or younger population where Labour’s stance on the war in Gaza has proved a negative for the party. Votes for 16 and 17-year-olds might also prove a small help.

Apart from some useful geographical concentrations of support, they also attract people who’ve tended to defect from Labour to the Greens since Starmer took over. Corbyn, love him or hate him, has got name recognition, a strong populist instinct, and seemingly inexhaustible reserves of self-confidence. As, indeed, does Sultana. Elections in Scotland and Wales under a partly proportional system next May, and successive rounds of local elections in the big cities, where pockets of support can get councillors in, will also see new Sultana-Corbynites elected. In some places, local politics might get unhealthily polarised, if not communalised, between Reform and the Corbynites.

Who are they hurting?

Greens have most to lose, followed by Labour, followed by Reform (because protest voters don’t have to be consistent, just angry). Angela Rayner, Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting are just three of the more prominent MPs vulnerable to a Corbynite revival. Multi-party politics will probably be quite chaotic electorally next time round.

What could go wrong?

A majority muslim base is not necessarily consistent with a general wish to be socially progressive on, for example, LGBT+ rights. A similar debate has been going on in the Green Party, with such issues raised by Mothin Ali, a prominent Green activist and councillor in Leeds. Adnan Hussain, independent MP for Blackburn, remarked: “I'm following this dilemma being faced by Mothin with great interest. It’s no secret that Muslims tend to be socially conservative. Is there space on the left to create a broad enough church to allow Muslims an authentic space, just as it does all other minority groups?”

What are their prospects?

Israel’s conduct of the war has shocked so many people, and it has become such a powerfully charged issue that Gaza, and opposition to “austerity”, will hold them together – but there will be arguments.

The left is traditionally prone to splintering (as Labour itself did in Corbyn’s heyday), and there’s no reason to suppose it’ll be different this time, given the busy intersection of cultural and traditional class issues. Sadly, the kind of bitter controversies about antisemitism and Islamophobia that disfigured Corbyn’s period as Labour leader could quite easily cause even more disruption and appalling publicity for the new party.

Corbyn’s answer to all this is maximum autonomy at the local level, but that also means a lack of clarity on policy, and yet more room for internal division – just like when he ran Labour, in fact.