{"id":405132,"date":"2025-09-07T11:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405132\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T11:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:40:12","slug":"labour-is-dead-says-zarah-sultana-as-she-calls-for-patience-over-party-launch-zarah-sultana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405132\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour is dead, says Zarah Sultana as she calls for patience over party launch | Zarah Sultana"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLabour is dead\u201d after failing to deliver for working people, Zarah Sultana said as she urged supporters of a new leftwing party she is creating with Jeremy Corbyn<\/a> to be patient and \u201cwatch this space\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South who quit Labour<\/a> after losing the whip for backing a move to scrap the two-child benefit cap, is co-leader of a nascent party with Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

She was speaking at the weekend in Newcastle at the conference of a separate but like-minded leftwing party founded by the former Labour North of Tyne mayor, Jamie Driscoll, who quit the party<\/a> when he has blocked from standing as its candidate in the north-east mayoralty election.<\/p>\n

It was a packed house of about 300 people in the Great Hall meeting room of Newcastle\u2019s Discovery Museum. The gathering shines a light on how Labour has to look over its left shoulder, as much as its right, as it navigates the changing political landscape with confidence in established, mainstream parties on the decline.<\/p>\n

Sultana said more than 750,000 people had registered their interest in the new party but acknowledged frustration at how long it was taking to get it formally launched. In lieu of an agreed name it is being called \u201cYour party\u201d and no date for a promised \u201cmid-autumn\u201d conference has been announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch this space,\u201d Sultana told the Guardian. \u201cI am just as desperate to get this going but it will take time to make sure democracy is at the heart of it. It needs to be reflective of the movement, it can\u2019t just be MP-led.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zack Polanski, the new leader of the Greens, has said he is open to working with Your party<\/a>, although he has distanced himself from the suggestion of an electoral pact.<\/p>\n

Sultana said she got on \u201creally well\u201d with Polanski, adding: \u201cThe Labour<\/a> party has moved to the right. You\u2019ve already got Reform and you\u2019ve got the Conservatives. People are desperate for a leftwing alternative that is not beholden to the interests of the billionaires and the super rich.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we have interests that align we will work with the Greens, but it has to be done in a democratic way and I\u2019m sure that\u2019s what Green members will want of their leadership as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her speech she described Labour as a \u201cdead party\u201d that had failed to deliver but said she had no interest in building a \u201cLabour party 2.0\u201d or creating a party which was just about winning elections.<\/p>\n

Problems are \u201ctoo big for tinkering around the edges\u201d, she said. \u201cThey demand bolder action and better power.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the meeting backers of Driscoll\u2019s Majority party wanted to know what the relationship with the Corbyn-Sultana party will be.<\/p>\n

It will be \u201cwhatever the members of Majority want and whatever the members of Your party want,\u201d said Sultana. \u201cObviously it\u2019s important that Majority remains as a distinct organisation that is able to choose the path it takes forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be links, though, given the similar messaging. Driscoll himself is listed as one of three directors of a company<\/a> created to act as data controller for donation processing to Your party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He is campaigning to take control of Newcastle city council next year with a progressive alliance that he hopes will include independents and Greens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite happy to take on Nigel Farage and give him a kicking,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to win in this city, we\u2019ll make sure of that. Reform is a glass cannon at the moment, they\u2019re producing all sorts of stuff and the Labour party is running away. We\u2019re not going anywhere, we\u2019ll stand and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gathering in Newcastle came on what has been one of the most politically frenzied weekends for years.<\/p>\n

Sultana said she thought voters had bigger concerns. \u201cBeing in parliament for the past six years you get used to reshuffles, people resigning and I find that a lot of that Westminster drama entertains lobby journalists and politicians in SW1 but ordinary people in Coventry and Newcastle and across the country are more worried about the bills at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re worried about the cost of living and they need politicians and political parties to centre their interests rather than the interests of the super rich, lobbyists, corporates, oil and gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular we have a Labour government that was elected on this promise of change and instead in the past year we\u2019ve seen cuts to winter fuel, we\u2019ve seen cuts to disability benefits, we\u2019ve seen a Labour government sell more arms to Israel than the previous Tory government and is more complicit in genocide than a Conservative government. Those are the issues that people care about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLabour is dead\u201d after failing to deliver for working people, Zarah Sultana said as she urged supporters of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-405132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115162829649763490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}