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Six years ago, Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to deal with accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour party helped to fell his leadership. His response to the 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission report into how the party dealt with these charges was deemed so inadequate by Keir Starmer that he exiled Corbyn from the party.
To Zarah Sultana, the Independent (but former Labour) MP who is now co-founding a new left-wing party alongside Corbyn, the former Labour leader’s response was too soft. Corbynism “capitulated to the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” she told the New Left Review (in a wide-ranging interview with New Statesman contributor, Oliver Eagleton).
When Corbyn’s Labour “came under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back,” Sultana said, “this was a serious mistake”. In a post on X, responding to coverage of her comments, Sultana doubled down: “I say it loudly and proudly: I’m an anti-Zionist.”
Sultana’s comments in the NLR, revealing her explicit criticism of Corbynism’s dealings with anti-Semitism expose a crucial fault line in the development of YourParty. Many of Corbyn’s allies see accusations of anti-Semitism as responsible for the destruction of his project for Labour. In describing his actions as “capitulation”, Sultana risks transferring these accusations to YourParty; and considering the historic weight of this criticism, it is a problem which YourParty – currently in its infancy – may find difficult to counter.
The outspokenness of his co-founder is already seen by some around Corbyn as a fatal flaw. Briefings against Sultana by others close to the process have accused the MP for Coventry South of “jumping the gun” with her shock announcement or have criticised her lack of experience. Concerns have also been raised over Sultana’s refusal to engage with ‘legacy media’ (the only interviews she has done so far regarding the new party have been with Novara Media and NLR) and her disparagement of the “media class” who she claims, “tried to destroy Jeremy’s reputation and the politics he represents”. But Sultana does not seem fazed by her detractors – in fact, she sounds galvanized. “People who are supposedly on the left thinking it’s appropriate to use the Murdoch press to broadcast smears is astounding,” she told the NLR. “You cannot give these people an inch,” she said.
For now, YourParty remains in an “embryonic stage” with an impressive 700,000 sign-ups online in recent weeks. But without proper infrastructure, leadership, or direction it is also clearly at its most vulnerable. Sultana has explicitly outlined the direction she believes her new party must take on accusations of anti-Semitism: one which is less willing to relent to outside pressure. But will the grandees involved in the creation of YourParty – many of whom lived through the painful and protracted final moments of Corbyn’s Labour – be prepared to listen? Or will Sultana’s blatant call for a new, more stubborn direction on matters of principle only serve to make the grumbling rift in the burgeoning leadership of YourParty even deeper?
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