Defiant Zarah Sultana ‘won’t be pushed out’ of Your Party as she slams ‘toxic culture’

A defiant Zarah Sultana has refused to be “pushed out” of Your Party after she boycotted the first day of the conference, accusing people within the organisation of creating a “toxic culture” and citing a “witch hunt”.

In an extraordinary row at the party’s inaugural gathering, Ms Sultana said she would not enter the main conference centre in Liverpool on Saturday after one of her supporters, Kingston councillor James Giles, was claimed to have been denied entry. Other members were expelled on Friday over alleged membership of the Socialist Workers Party.

The criticism comes just hours after Jeremy Corbyn vowed the co-leaders of the crisis-hit party were united.

A spokesperson for Ms Sultana said: “Zarah met members outside the conference and condemned the recent expulsions. This witch hunt is indefensible. We must build a party that welcomes all socialists. She will not be entering the conference hall today.”

But Your Party has hit back, denying claims of a “purge” of members, saying those expelled had broken “clearly stated membership rules”.

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A Your Party spokesman said: “These claims are false. Members of another national political party signed up to Your Party in contravention of clearly stated membership rules – and these rules were enforced.”

Ms Sultana expressed her disappointment at the expulsion of people from Your Party on the eve of its founding conference.

She said: “I’m disappointed to see on the morning of our founding conference, people who have travelled from all over the country, spent a lot of money on their train fare, on hotels, on being able to participate in this conference, being told that they have been expelled.

“That is a culture that is reminiscent of the Labour Party, how there were witch hunts on the eve of conference, how members were treated with contempt,” she continued. “We are here to build a democratic party that unites all of the left, all socialists, so they can find their political home in Your Party. So what we have seen this morning has been disappointing and it should be reversed.”

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But she insisted the party could work together, even as she accused unnamed individuals of seeking to operate a “top-down” organisation.

She said: “We absolutely have to work together. But what we have to get rid of is this toxic culture of leaks to the right-wing press, of legal threats, of bullying, intimidation and acts of sabotage...

“It is all symptomatic of a group of people who are operating with paranoia and an obsession with control, and what I’m here to do is defend member democracy.”

The latest spat came just hours after Mr Corbyn claimed that infighting was over in Your Party, as he told members he was proud of his co-leader and had sent a message of “support and solidarity” to a rally she held on Friday night.

In his speech to party members in Liverpool on Saturday, he said: “As a party, we’ve got to come together and be united because division and disunity will not serve the interests of the people that we want to represent. So that’s the basis on which we launch the party now.”

The fresh commitment to unity came shortly after Mr Corbyn declined to call Ms Sultana a friend when asked during an interview with Sky News. Instead, he said the pair were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.

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Despite expressing her issues with the “witch hunt” she alleged was ongoing in Your Party, Ms Sultana said she would support Mr Corbyn if he were elected leader of the party “despite her advocacy for collective leadership”.

“I am a democrat, I will support whatever the members decide,” she said. “I supported a co-leadership structure. Unfortunately, a nameless, faceless bureaucrat decided the members weren’t allowed to even vote on that option.

“Interestingly, I also supported the ‘Left Party’ as being one of the names for the party that I supported, and that hasn’t also been included as an option for members, which actually is an undemocratic move.”

It follows a chaotic first few months for the party, marred by division, which saw Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana fall out over a botched membership launch.

Ms Sultana complained she had been subjected to a “sexist boys’ club” after supporters were invited to officially sign up and give the party financial backing. But Mr Corbyn described the move as an “unauthorised email” and just hours later warned members in a statement posted on social media not to sign up via the link.

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Two MPs who helped to set up the outfit have also since quit; last week, Iqbal Mohamed said in a statement that he had decided to leave Your Party and continue to serve his Dewsbury and Batley constituency as an independent MP.

And earlier this month, MP Adnan Hussain said he was withdrawing from the party’s “steering process”, citing concerns about factionalism and “veiled prejudice” against Muslims.

Later in his speech, Mr Corbyn used Your Party’s supposed newfound unity to criticise the Labour Party’s structure and “bureaucracy”.

The former Labour leader said: “I’ve had enough of top-down parties. I spent a lifetime in the Labour Party, mostly fighting Labour Party bureaucracy. I don’t want to repeat that in Your Party. I don’t want to repeat that experience.”

He took the opportunity to urge members to “campaign forever more” for “real socialism”.

Concluding his opening address to the party’s founding conference, he said: “We are here in Liverpool with a huge responsibility on our shoulders to get this thing underway this weekend, to get the branches going, to get the campaigns going and contest the elections in the future.

“This is our opportunity and our time.

“We are going to seize it with both hands, build that party, build that society, and campaign forevermore for real socialism and real social justice.”

During the conference, members will be able to vote on the party’s new name after months of indecision and confusion. The options include Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, and For The Many, with the chosen name to be announced on Sunday.