Corbyn: "Real Change Is Coming"

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are launching a new left-wing party to challenge Labour before the next general election, with five independent MPs signing up and a recent More in Common poll suggesting it could win 10 per cent of the vote.

Reform UK is already polling neck-and-neck with Labour on about 25 per cent, and the split right means a new left alternative could reshape the field. The party will focus on poverty, inequality and a foreign policy based on peace rather than war.

On 3 July, Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana resigned from Labour to form the new party with Jeremy Corbyn. She blamed Westminster’s “two-party system” for “managed decline and broken promises” and said she would repeat votes against the two-child benefit cap and cuts to winter fuel payments.

Corbyn, suspended from Labour in 2020, confirmed on ITV that discussions among the Independent Alliance group were underway to form “an alternative” to Keir Starmer’s centrist Labour.

His statement on 4 July leaves no doubt - a lovely 'birthday' present for the hapless Starmer on the anniversary of his since-declined success:

Naturally the news has met with a predictable response from the usual suspects in the media; Zarah Sultana has been accused of 'saying it before even talking to Corbyn' ' quitting because she was about to be expelled from Labour', and perhaps most amusingly, of hubris "Who's she to say 'she' is going to co-lead this party?".

This can perhaps be put down to basic illiteracy - her statement does not say she will 'co-lead' the party; it says that she and Corbyn will 'co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country'.

Her statement ends: "Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them - it's time the rest of us had one'" Oddly, this line has barely merited a mention...

(Surely this must be a simple mistake on the part of the MSM - they wouldn't just deliberately try to smear and belittle a socialist who wanted to actually improve life for the many, not the few. Would they...?)

For the avoidance of doubt, this is Zarah's actual statement:

Reform UK’s surge, polling just one point behind Labour in January, has rattled the government. Nigel Farage’s party won 14 per cent in the 2024 election and now threatens to erode Tory support, especially in Brexit-leaning “Red Wall” seats. A Euronews survey shows Labour on 26 per cent and Reform on 25 per cent, with the Conservatives trailing on 22 per cent.

While those on the 'Labour' right will view the new party as a threat, many on the left will see as a chance to match Reform’s appeal with a progressive, populist offer.

Historically the first-past-the-post system can punish new parties unless their support is highly concentrated - however, the mass success and appeal of the 'Corbyn movement' after 2015, in addition to the mass disappointment of Starmer's 'Labour's first year in power, certainly gives a new party an existing support to draw on.

Analysis in The Loop notes that a populist-left challenger may struggle to win seats but could “critically undermine Labour in key constituencies” by drawing disaffected voters. Past examples in France and Spain show that left-wing breakaways can force mainstream parties to shift policies or adopt coalitions, though proportional systems there made survival easier.

The Green Party’s deputy leader, Zack Polanski, has invited Corbyn and allies to join his eco-socialist movement, arguing the Greens already function as a “new party, parliamentary group and national movement”

There seems no doubt, however, that Zack's Green Party in Parliament will be quite happy to work in cooperation with the new party:

What the right see as fragmentation, others hope will energise young voters, trade unionists and anti-war campaigners. Left-wing commentators point to the 2017 surge under Corbyn and Spain’s Podemos to suggest a space exists for radical change.

The new party’s backers say it will force Labour to adopt bolder policies on public services, tax and climate, and offer real hope to communities left behind. It will stand or back candidates committed to trade union rights, social housing and Palestinian solidarity.

For progressives, this could mark the start of a genuine contest over Britain’s future, not a choice between two managers of decline.

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References:

Aletha Adu, “MP Zarah Sultana resigns from Labour to co-found a new party with Corbyn,” The Guardian, 3 July 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/03/jeremy-corbyn-hints-at-launch-of-new-party-as-leftwing-alternative-to-labour

George Eaton, “The phantom threat of Corbyn 2.0,” New Statesman, 25 June 2025, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/polling/2025/06/the-phantom-threat-of-corbyn-2-0

Rory Sullivan, “Reform UK one point behind Labour, poll shows,” Euronews, 14 January 2025, https://www.euronews.com/2025/01/14/new-era-for-uk-politics-as-reform-narrow-labours-lead-poll-shows

Oscar West, “The next UK election is a done deal unless the populist left steps in,” The Loop, 10 March 2025, https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-next-uk-election-is-a-done-deal-unless-the-populist-left-steps-in/