JUST LAUNCH THE THING!

Latest news and views on the Corbyn-Sultana left party project

Cover photo: The 1908 launch of a Brazilian battleship

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MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are reported to be leading the effort to establish a new left party. The announcement is supposed to come on 22 July, but this date cannot be confirmed.

By Alan Story

“JUST LAUNCH THE THING!” by Harry Holmes is the appropriately titled feature article in today's issue of THE LEFT LANE. We have reprinted it below.

But there have been so many developments in the past six days about the Corbyn-Sultana left party project that we want to bring you up to date on some of them. We had originally planned to include links here to articles and videos in the mainstream and progressive media on the new party, but there were just too many. Put “Corbyn new left party” in Google and you can access a lorry load of them.

1) We've been covering this story in detail since mid-September 2024. No wonder socialist activists are getting more and more pissed off at the slow pace, the top-downism and the Stasi-like secrecy.

But it got front page/ top of the newscast coverage late last week after MP Zarah Sultana announced that she and ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had agreed to lead the campaign for a new left party; to be clear, NOT lead such a party. THE LEFT LANE story came out early Sunday morning. Titled “Corbyn and Sultana aim for a new left party. BRING IT ON! ASAP!” (see HERE), our story was basically positive, but did raise a wide number of concerns, which we won't repeat here. Gushy, uncritical journalism isn’t our game.

“Comrades of Chaos”

2) But a mere 10 minutes after pushing the “publish” button for the above story, I read a long Sunday Times story titled “Comrades of Chaos / Text show Team Corbyn opposed new party minutes after launch.” The piece was based on a number of internal private WhatsApp messages that leading organisers of the proposed new party had leaked. You can access this story in two ways:

a) The full version is HERE as it appeared in The Sunday Times on 6 July containing the leaked WhatsApp messages; it is, however, behind a paywall.

b) the free online version of the same story is HERE, but it does not contain WA messages from people such Corbyn’s colleagues, such as Karie Murphy and Pamela Fitzpatrick.

3) THE LEFT LANE today does not attempt to do a precis of The Sunday Times story; you can read it yourself. It reveals that a huge chaos ensued after it seems Sultana released an announcement on 3 July that she and Corbyn would be leading the attempt to form a new party, but she did so without the permission of Corbyn. He was evidently livid. It all got very nasty and combative and a temporary peace did not return until Corbyn issued an under-enthusiastic statement 18 hours after Sultana issued hers. (You can read the statements from Sultana and Corbyn HERE.)

4) The events since 3 July have obviously been a public relations disaster for the new party. What happens next? No subsequent statements have been released, including any comment on The Sunday Times piece. We give a few details in point 7.

Investigation needed into leaking internal pre-party documents to Murdoch-owned press.

5) But for now we think it is important to return to the leaking of pre-party internal documents to The Sunday Times. First, some people are suggesting the piece is fabrication, a mere hatchet job. We have no time for the political spin of this Sunday Times piece, but the idea that the journalist simply fabricated the WhatsApp messages to get a scoop is simply way off base. Has anyone denied the story? No. Corbyn has been around for yonks. So has his mate Len McCluskey, formerly the general secretary of the UK's largest union, Unite, and now a key player in this party building effort. If it was all a made-up yarn, Corbyn or McCluskey would have held a news conference at 12 noon on Sunday, 6 July and categorically denied the whole thing. This is how these things are done ... and I have been a professional journalist since 1967.

6) Second, and the far more important issue is this: Have the leaders of this new proposed left party investigated the leaking? Who did it? And why?

Disclosing these private documents to a journalist for the Murdoch press was clearly an attempt to attack the political credibility of an opposing faction in this proposed new party. Is this considered the proper way for leading members of a left /socialist party to operate?

Yesterday, we were discussing in a Facebook group of socialists what should happen to any organisers of the new party who leaked this information. Replied a woman who is relatively new to left politics: “They should be removed. It’s lowest of the low political sabotage.” I could not agree more.

This kind of behaviour completely undermines collectivity and trust among party members, it promotes careerism and backstabbing , and exactly mirrors the type of behaviour found in old line parties. We do NOT want it in a new organisation.

And it gives this new party an unbelievably bad name before it is even launched. For example, leaks such as this can result in people losing their jobs and, in a time of increasing repression against the left, just makes it easier for police agents to operate.

So a request to Corbyn and Sultana on behalf of many of us: Can you please confirm that neither you nor any of your people participated in this leaking?

An investigation is needed, Jeremy.

I do not know the people around Zarah Sultana, but I do know, Jeremy, of your colleagues Pamela Fitzpatrick and Karie Murphy who head up your Peace and Justice project, as well as Collective, and who have been organising this new left party since September 2024. Can you please confirm that none of them were involved? This is too serious a matter to sweep under the carpet.

7) So what comes next? The supposed announcement date for a new party is less than two weeks away. We have been told that an “organising group” ( as it is called) composed of 5-6 people close to Corbyn plus some people close to Sultana are currently at work finalising details for the announcement. Some type of founding conference would be held in the autumn of 2025, with November being a possible date.

Admittedly, pretty thin gruel, but transparency is not their strong suit. This proposed new party, suggested one commentor, is “far from the clarion some seem to think it is." Personally, I am undecided about signing up.

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JUST LAUNCH THE THING!

Reprinted from Prometheus Journal on 7 July 2025 HERE

By Harry Holmes ( Guest Post)

Late on Thursday night (3 July), Zarah Sultana MP released a statement stating she would be resigning from the Labour party to ‘co-lead the founding of a new party’ with Jeremy Corbyn.

This news brought elation from many who are seeking a left alternative to Starmer’s Labour. This was the perfect time for a socialist MP to prove they are different from the established parties and champion a socialist alternative. On the one hand, the Starmer government was facing a political crisis based on its attempts to take money from disabled people. On the other hand, it was pushing through its deeply authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action, as part of its wider criminalisation of protest. Here was the moment for something else – resisting both the attacks on welfare whilst championing civil liberties and pushing for an end to British participation in the genocide.

Yet, amongst the elation, a nervous energy grew. Corbyn did not release a statement at the same time. Someone started briefing Gabriel Pogrund, Sunday Times journalist, that Corbyn hadn’t agreed. (This has then led to a generally unedifying series of exchanges being leaked to the Times, producing a generally embarrassing article that can be read HERE though may be behind a paywall.) Only on Friday afternoon did Corbyn release something. He was ‘delighted that she will help us build a real alternative.’ He was pleased to announce that ‘the democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape.’ Rather than explicitly stating it was launching, and they were going to co-lead it, we were left with the opaque ‘discussions are ongoing.’ I’m sure I wasn’t alone in experiencing a deep gloom the more I read. This was a holding statement.

As of writing on the weekend of the 5^th, we are left no clearer. Corbyn could have clarified further at an event with Leanne Mohamad and Andrew Feinstein on Friday night, but his speech developed nothing concrete. As of the evening of the 5^th, 37,566 have signed up to ‘Team Zarah’, the site they were directed to in her statement. ( Ed. a total xxxxx as of 9 July) That’s tens of thousands of people who were keen to join a new left party, who are simply now left in limbo.

More worryingly, as people attending the picnic to mark Corbyn’s year since being elected as an independent suggest, he continues to promote the idea of an ‘alliance’ of grassroots challengers with shared values, as opposed to starting a new national membership party – directly contradicting the thrust of Sultana’s announcement.

People have been left confused – the timing was perfect, the appetite was there, the backroom ‘leaders’ of the left have been clearly discussing this for nearly two years, and we are once again left in the lurch. Whether intended or not, now the starting gun has been fired by Sultana, for those outside these opaque processes Corbyn suddenly appears as the barrier.

Why is this?

Once again, we don’t know. As has been the tedious, mind killing experience of previous months, every drinks, meeting, or protest eventually turn to ‘I heard…’. A rumour mill churns, as people are left unsure about what to commit to. This has entirely been the product of how opaque this process has been.

This is something those arguing that the left should fight through the Greens, around Greens Organise, have capitalised on through simply having a party and person willing to present themselves for consideration to the public. (That Greens Organise planned to launch their own membership at the weekend is at least one part of this whole sordid process.) We are now left in a situation where those arguing for unity of socialists, never mind the broader forces of the left, are increasingly forced to relate on two fronts – to a likely Polanski win and a still nebulous Sultana-Corbyn project. The pull to the Greens has been the product of the dithering of those pushing a new left project – creating greater headaches for the left in Britain.

The reason for this non-launch could be tedious court politics. Is it the fact that people wanted Corbyn as sole leader? We could be witnessing the vacuous manoeuvres of various individuals associated with the MPs who want to ensure ‘their vision’, ‘their role’ or ‘their strategy’ is adopted. At a certain point, it’s not worth speculating. The replies should be the same. If you want to be leader, stand up and ask people to give it to you. If your strategy or vision for the organisation is so good, put it out in public. If we, as socialists, believe that change comes from people taking mass action, we should have the trust in putting the case to them.

More sympathetically, Corbyn has floated on various occasions the need for a left alternative to come from an alliance of local struggles, rooted in the various groups which have mobilised around the genocide and other struggles. As such, there remains this perennial idea that there should not be a national membership organisation immediately, instead a coalition of ‘real’ local challenges will come together in advance of the 2026 locals, based on some shared values, and maybe it will become a national organisation. In doing so, the hope is that this ensures there is a real mass activist base which pays attention to local specificities, and feeds into the wider platform. Politics from below!

This idea sounds lovely, but people on the left in Britain should not fall for it. Rather than producing an alliance of real mass local struggles, it has, instead, created a perverse logic which is potentially detrimental to the wider project. Imagine you wish to have influence in a new left party, which is being built in an alliance from these local challengers. What is one major way to secure your influence in this organisation? It is developing a claim to being the oppositional candidate at the 2026 local elections in an area – often as quickly as possible. This means, if the new left party wants to construct its national alliance, it has to deal with your new group. Thus, rather than local challenges emerging organically from the varieties of struggles in recent years, everyone who wants ‘in’ is rushing to proclaim themselves the local challenger. We are seeing, and will see more over the coming weeks, a variety of challenges and local organisations announced only tangentially related to the real extent of their organisational capacity and mass support in their area.

Certainly, the larger left groups, particularly the Socialist Workers Party, worried about the possibility of being sidelined or purged, are now sending their local branches into movement spaces around Palestine, around disability justice, and so on, attempting to ‘hegemonise the left’ and push forward their role in the 2026 challenge – building on ‘We Demand Change’ and other links. This is not bad in of itself – in nearly every area, it will be impossible to build such a left party without the existing organised left. Certainly, we need to start planning for the 2026 elections now, and they are right to seize the initiative when others are wavering.

However, there is now a fundamental tension in the setting up and running of local challenges for 2026 – between doing it because it is the best thing for the struggle and doing it to secure a role in any forthcoming left party. Considerations of influence create many pressures that prevent us producing the best candidates possible for areas, prevent us thinking strategically about viable areas to contest, and prevent us confronting the actual question of how this builds towards the end goal (the political independence of the exploited and oppressed and their mass activity).

So rather than an alliance of national local groups creating a healthy ecosystem built from the bottom up, leading to a flowering of local struggles feeding a fully developed left party, we see the same behind the scenes bun fights. It’s unedifying, unnecessary and continues to exclude many waiting for a new organisation from having a say in their political future.

So where do we go?

The solution to this is all around us – this process must be opened up; we should have a national membership organisation and begin a process of member-led coordination of the struggles in advance of 2026. Whatever ends up being produced as a new left organisation, the existing far-left organisations, the Corbynite career politicians, and more will all find a way in, no matter what great attempts have been made over the last two years to prevent it. Our only hope is the mass of people who will, if the cards are played right, join such an organisation – they will bring their experiences, their scrutiny, their energy to this project. If your strategies are so good, show them, perhaps you might learn something. If we aspire to a world where every cook can and must govern, we must act like it. Revolutions are festivals of the exploited and oppressed – it’s time to remove the bouncers and let the people in.

Anyone close to this process, whoever you are, should recognise Sultana is right – she has read the moment and has trusted people who are begging for such an organisation. Now, encourage all waverers to close ranks behind her, particularly Corbyn. For those who have already jumped to the Greens, if Polanski wins as well as a new formation coming about, struggle will need to be had with the significant conservative element of the Greens to secure an electoral alliance, and those in a new left party should argue for the same when competing for key seats. (Insofar as a smart new left party will be competing with the Greens in Ilford North, which cannot be allowed – the rural conservative bastions of a different wing of English Greens are likely going to rapidly become less viable for both projects.) For those like myself waiting for the project to start, this means Sultana should be treated as the pole of attraction, especially if in the worst case it is her alone. We will bring our politics into this space, we will develop it constructively, and we will try to rebuild mass socialist politics in Britain again. If Corbyn, or others holding up this process, are unwilling or vacillating, then so be it. Rather than having to kill our darlings, we have watched them slowly drown themselves. Let us step over them into a new national organisation, where the real struggle begins.

Harry Holmes is is a writer and editor at Prometheus.

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This is the website of PROMETHEUS JOURNAL HERE:

This is where you can find out more about the publication and its editorial board:https://prometheusjournal.org/about-us/

You can subscribe to its newsletter here and be informed when all future articles appear: https://prometheusjournal.org/newsletter/

In the Autumn of 2024, Harry Holmes wrote a very good article for the journal entitled “Revenge of the Network Left” that you can read HERE.

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Isle of Wight lefties meet 15 July on Zoom … and you’re invited

Some years back at Compton Chine on the Isle of Wight / Photo by Barbara Murdter

All across the UK socialists and progressives are meeting up to chat about this proposed new left party. Here is the link to a meeting on Tuesday, 15 July at 7:00 pm London Time where an ad hoc group “ Isle of Wight Socialists” will be discussing and debating.

If you also want to attend, we’ve been told you will be welcome to do so matter wherever you live.

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COPY AND PASTE on this ZOOM link to join:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84891838627?pwd=IMtCAaBccPoSIc55q0LNBvyyDSUU81.1

Meeting ID: 848 9183 8627 Passcode: 627495

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We hope it is a good session.

Are you also organising an upcoming meeting to discuss and debate the left party project? Let us know the details and THE LEFT LANE will promote it. Theleftlanepolitics@gmail.com.

Feel free to send us a report on your meeting. Or write a piece on the range of issues connected to setting up a new party and send it in. Overnight we had an offer of another guest post for the start of next week.

THE LEFT LANE is very keen to have a wide and public debate on these pages about this proposed party. As we wrote last week, “ either this new party will be ‘OUR PARTY’ or it will be nothing … and just a retread of what has gone before.”

And also comment in the comments section below.

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CHECK THIS OUT

KEEPING STARMER & LABOUR IN OUR LINE OF SITE

Here are two articles published this week which analyse the serious failings of the Starmer government.

“ LABOUR’S SURRENDER TO REFORM’S NARRATIVE MEANS FARAGE HAS ALREADY WON” By Sunniya Ahmad Pirzada in Middle East Eye. Access it HERE

“U.K. LABOUR IN GOVERNMENT, IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO END IN TEARS” By Brian Green in The Planning Motive Access it HERE.

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