Corbyn’s party set to aid Reform by splitting the Left

Jeremy Corbyn has set up a new political party that threatens to tear into Labour’s disaffected base, splintering since Sir Keir Starmer’s election win last year.

Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Picture: Susannah Ireland / AFP

Sir Keir Starmer faces a split on Labour’s left flank that appears set to bolster Reform, after Jeremy Corbyn launched a new political party.

After weeks of delay and infighting, the former Labour leader joined Zarah Sultana, also an independent MP, to announce the establishment of “Your Party”.

The movement, which will be given a permanent name by members, is billed as a radical left-wing alternative to Labour, centred around economic policies such as water and mail nationalisation, and a pro-Gaza stance.

The pair threaten to tear into Labour’s disaffected base, which has been splintering towards the Green Party, independents, SNP and Plaid Cymru since Starmer’s election victory last year.

Reform leader Nigel Farage.

British PM Sir Keir Starmer.

Sultana is among those hoping to take a seat off Labour. Sources said the Coventry South MP told friends she planned to stand in Birmingham at the next election - probably against Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary.

Labour strategists believe the new party could cost them seats previously vulnerable to pro-Gaza independents, given that four such MPs announced they were joining Corbyn and Sultana’s party within hours of its launch. There are also concerns that a split on the left could help Reform win in dozens of constituencies. Corbyn and Sultana’s new party hit an early stumbling block, however, with confusion over its name.

In a joint statement, the pair encouraged disaffected Labour voters and others to join “Your Party”. They said those who signed up on an online form would “be part of the founding process”, able to decide the party’s strategy, policies and aims.

Sultana was swiftly forced to clarify that “Your Party” was a temporary name, until members choose a permanent title at a conference expected in the autumn.

Labour MPs said the confusion was emblematic of the chaos that has dogged the party in the weeks since Sultana announced it without Corbyn’s agreement.

She said on July 3 that she was relinquishing her Labour Party membership, having been suspended for nearly a year for voting against the two-child benefit cap, to “co-lead” a new party. Corbyn said, however, that discussions were still continuing. His team was unhappy at the handling of the botched launch. The pair put on a united front when they finally announced the party’s launch yesterday, however.

Corbyn denied the choreography was “messy” and insisted they had adopted a “totally coherent approach”. He told broadcasters “it’s democratic, it’s grassroots and it’s open”, adding that he and Sultana were “working very well together”.

He turned his fire on Starmer, saying that Labour was “full of control freaks”. He added that Nigel Farage’s Reform party was a “dangerously divisive force in our society”.

It's time for a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you.

Sign up at https://t.co/0bhBHhWvVa. pic.twitter.com/UwjHBf4nZQ

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 24, 2025

Sources involved in the new party said they were hopeful of securing defections from Labour backbenchers and some who had left the party to become independent MPs.

Senior Labour sources downplayed the likelihood of any such moves. One said: “The electorate has twice given its verdict on a Jeremy Corbyn-led party”, in a reference to Labour’s election defeats under his leadership in 2017 and 2019, before Starmer threw him out over his response to a report on failures to tackle antisemitism.

MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group caucus said there was unlikely to be an exodus. They said the group had felt emboldened by climbdowns from Starmer on cuts to welfare and the winter fuel allowance and were confident No 10 would change direction after summer.

Four pro-Gaza MPs, who formed the Independent Alliance with Corbyn, announced their support for the new party and will contribute to its founding process. It was noted, however, that the four voted against Labour’s move to impose VAT on private schools, suggesting they may be at odds with Corbyn and Sultana’s economic views.

In a sign of the effort to appeal to Muslim voters, Karie Murphy, Corbyn’s chief of staff when he was leader of the opposition, was said to have tried to recruit Lutfur Rahman, the Tower Hamlets mayor, to join the group that will steer the party’s formation.

It is not immediately clear how damaging the new grouping will be for Labour. A poll by More In Common last month about a hypothetical Corbyn-led party put it on 10 per cent - with most voters drawn from Labour and the Greens.

Given Corbyn will be 80 by the likely time of the next election, Sultana’s prominent position is seen as a way to place herself as a future torch-bearer of the left. Sources told The Times she was partly involved in the new party “for her own ends”. They said she had made it clear she wanted to stand in Birmingham, where she was born.

Her seat, previously the Coventry South East constituency, was held until 1992 by David Nellist, a left-wing firebrand. He ran as an independent having been kicked out of the party for being linked to the Militant tendency.

The Times has been told that Sultana is wary of a similar fate and has explored standing against Mahmood. Last July, the justice secretary came less than 3,500 votes from losing to a pro-Gaza independent.

A source close to Mahmood said: “Sultana will chicken run from Coventry for sure but she’d be mad to take on Shabana in her back yard. Shabana’s roots in that community are deep.”

Sultana did not respond to requests for comment.

The Times