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\n Photo by Kevin Hayes\/Alamy Live News<\/p>\n
\n Photo by Kevin Hayes\/Alamy Live News<\/p>\n
Six years ago, Jeremy Corbyn<\/a>\u2019s failure to deal with accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party helped 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 Labour.<\/p>\n To Zarah Sultana, the independent (but former Labour) MP, who is co-founding a new left-wing party alongside Corbyn, the former Labour leader\u2019s response was too soft. Corbynism \u201ccapitulated to the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of anti-Semitism\u201d, she told the New Left Review (in a wide-ranging interview<\/a> with New Statesman contributor, Oliver Eagleton<\/a>).<\/p>\n When Corbyn\u2019s Labour \u201ccame under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back\u201d, Sultana said. \u201cThis was a serious mistake.\u201d In a post on X, responding to coverage of her comments, Sultana doubled down: \u201cI say it loudly and proudly: I\u2019m an anti-Zionist.\u201d<\/p>\n Sultana\u2019s comments in the NLR, revealing her explicit criticism of Corbynism\u2019s dealings with anti-Semitism, expose a crucial fault line in the development of Your Party. Many of Corbyn\u2019s allies see accusations of anti-Semitism as responsible for the destruction of his Labour project. In describing his actions as \u201ccapitulation\u201d, Sultana risks transferring these accusations across to Your Party. Considering how significant this criticism was for Corbyn\u2019s leadership, it is a problem that Your Party \u2013 which is still in its infancy \u2013 may find difficult to counter.<\/p>\n The outspokenness of his co-founder is already seen by some around Corbyn as a fatal flaw in her future leadership. Briefings against Sultana by others close to the process have accused the MP for Coventry South of \u201cjumping the gun\u201d with her premature announcement of the new party or have criticised her lack of experience. Concerns have also been raised over Sultana\u2019s refusal to engage with \u201clegacy media\u201d (the only interviews she has done so far regarding the new party have been with Novara Media<\/a> and NLR) and her disparagement of the \u201cmedia class\u201d which she claims \u201ctried to destroy Jeremy\u2019s reputation and the politics he represents\u201d. But Sultana does not seem fazed by her detractors \u2013 in fact, she sounds galvanised. \u201cPeople who are supposedly on the left thinking it\u2019s appropriate to use the Murdoch press to broadcast smears is astounding,\u201d she told the NLR. \u201cYou cannot give these people an inch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For now, Your Party remains at an \u201cembryonic stage\u201d with an impressive 700,000 sign-ups in recent weeks. But without proper infrastructure, leadership or direction, it is also at its most vulnerable state. Sultana has explicitly outlined the direction she believes her new party must take on accusations of anti-Semitism: one that is less willing to relent to outside pressure. But will the grandees involved in the creation of Your Party \u2013 many of whom lived through the painful and protracted final moments of Corbyn\u2019s Labour leadership \u2013 be prepared to listen? Or will Sultana\u2019s call for a new, more stubborn direction on matters of principle only serve to deepen the grumbling rift in the burgeoning leadership of Your Party?<\/p>\n [See also: Labour has become the party of landlordism<\/a>]<\/p>\n
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