Corbyn ‘to create new party to rival Labour’: rebel MP

British MP Zarah Sultana has resigned from the country’s ruling Labour Party, saying she will create a new party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is said to be considering setting up a new party. Picture: Getty Images.

British MP Zarah Sultana has resigned from the country’s ruling Labour Party, saying she will create a new party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, has sat as an independent since July 2024, when she had the Labour whip removed for voting against the government on the two-child benefit cap.

In a post on X, Sultana accused the government of “wanting to make disabled people suffer”, and being an “active participant in genocide” in Gaza.

Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.

Join us. The time is now.

Sign up here to stay updated: https://t.co/MAwVBrHOzHpic.twitter.com/z91p0CkXW0

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 3, 2025

She said: “Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”

It comes after Corbyn, the former Labour leader who has sat as an independent since Sir Keir Starmer ousted him in 2020, said that he was in discussions with various independent groups across the country about “an alternative” to Labour.

However, there were reports on Thursday night that Corbyn had not yet agreed to co-lead the project with Sultana. Corbyn was approached for comment.

Sultana said Westminster was “broken” and at the next general election the choice would be between “socialism or barbarism”.

“Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them,” she said. “It’s time the rest of us had one.”

The Telegraph UK reports that a recent poll found a new Left-wing party could win 10 per cent of the vote in a blow to Labour, which would be tied with the Conservatives on 20 per cent.

Zarah Sultana has left the Labour Party. Picture: Supplied.

Sultana’s departure is unlikely to cause Sir Keir Starmer much concern as the MP, who is on the left of the party, has been vocally critical of his leadership. Recently she opposed to proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group, saying in the Commons and online: “We are all Palestine Action.”

In a dig at the government’s much-revised welfare reform, Sultana accused the government of wanting to “make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much”.

She also put the blame for Nigel Farage’s success in the polls squarely on Labour, saying the party had “completely failed to improve people’s lives”.

Sultana accused the government of being an “active participant in genocide” and hit out at politicians “across the political establishment” for “smearing people of conscience for trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists”.

She said: “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper. Just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population. Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene and the two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises.”

She continued: “We’re not an island of strangers; we’re an island that’s suffering. We need homes and lives we can actually afford, not rip-off bills we pay every month to a tiny elite bathing in cash. We need our money spent on public services, not forever wars.”

Sultana included a link to “join Team Zarah”, where she promised: “We don’t have billionaire donors or press baron friends. That’s why we need your support.”

Corbyn’s independent alliance includes Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South; Ayoub Khan, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr; Adnan Hussain, the MP for Blackburn; and Iqbal Mohamed, the MP for Dewsbury & Batley.

Speaking on ITV’s Peston program on Wednesday, Corbyn said a new party would focus on poverty, inequality and foreign policy “based on peace”.

A Labour spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”