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55 minutes ago
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Your Party faces a potential proxy war between supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana after members opted for a collective model of leadership, insiders have warned.
Members voted narrowly in favour of an initial period in which the new leftwing party is guided by a 16-strong central executive committee at its inaugural conference at the weekend. The decision avoided a direct and possibly brutal contest between Corbyn and Sultana to be sole leader, the other option available.
The pair have fallen out over a series of issues in the party’s brief history, including Sultana unilaterally announcing its formation and launching a membership drive, and a complex battle over transferring money from members to the party.
The conference in Liverpool saw signs of continued disagreements, with Sultana, the former Labour MP who now sits as an independent, boycotting the first day in protest over some of her supporters being expelled for being members of other political parties.
“We’re long past happy families,” one party insider said, when asked if the collective model of leadership could mean better relations between Sultana and Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is also now an independent MP.
“Effectively what it means is that the battle continues, but via their representatives. We have avoided, by a members’ vote, the one-to-one leadership contest, but it’s still basically a battle for the soul of the party.”
Another source argued, however, that the avoidance of a direct leadership battle was the “de-escalatory option” and good news for the party. “Going straight into a leadership contest between Zarah and Jeremy would definitely be sub-optimal right now,” they said.
Under the model agreed, 16 ordinary members would form the governing executive alongside four Your Party members who hold office. At the moment there are just four of these: Corbyn and Sultana, plus two more independent MPs, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan.
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The executive would elect roles including chair, vice-chair and spokesperson, who would primarily be “the public political leadership” of the party.
One party source said if the executive ended up dominated by supporters of Sultana, they would expect the other MPs to quit. “If she wins, the others walk, and she can be at the helm of a coalition of the sects.”
Another said whatever happened, the infighting had to end immediately if the party was to have a future. “The conference was what it was. It was democratic, it was messy. I don’t think the disagreements have to be terminal, but they have to be finite,” they said.
In another policy decision, Your Party members have opted to adopt a ‘targeted’ strategy of only standing in seats where it has a good chance of winning, a step towards a possible electoral alliance with the Greens.
While no such pact is in place at present, and is complicated by the fact that any deals have to be agreed locally with the Greens, it brings the possibility of deals to avoid splitting the vote to the left of Labour at next year’s local elections.
For example, Hackney in east London is traditionally a Labour stronghold, but the Green councillor Zoë Garbett is hoping to build on momentum behind her party and succeed next year on her third attempt at winning the borough’s mayoral election.
The Your Party vote results were released after a weekend when members voted to formally adopt the name that had been the placeholder used for its launch earlier this year.
