Keir Starmer’s government hasn’t produced the left-wing momentum many hoped for. The latest YouGov poll shows 72% are dissatisfied with his performance as Prime Minister, spurring support for leftist and liberal challengers who might counter the surging hard-right populist Reform UK. The Green Party has emerged as a clear frontrunner in scooping up disenchanted Labour voters, with membership soaring to 126,000 since Zack Polanski won the leadership contest this summer – now fiercely rivalling the two major parties.
However, a major cleavage threatens to split the left-wing vote and increase the likelihood of a Reform victory. Much of this division centres on the new Your Party, co-founded by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn.
A Rocky Launch
When Sultana and Corbyn launched Your Party in late July 2025, they proclaimed it a movement for mass redistribution and empowering ordinary people. Three months later, initial enthusiasm has subsided into pessimism and mockery as the party struggles to present a coherent, unified front.
The most dramatic split emerged when Corbyn and four other male MPs publicly declared that Sultana’s email encouraging supporters to sign up for membership was “unauthorised,” urging recipients to “immediately cancel” any direct debits. Sultana fired back with allegations of a “sexist boys’ club” culture and threatened legal action for defamation regarding accusations about her use of members’ data.
The Unity Question
Within the comment sections of both founders’ social media accounts, a recurring plea has emerged: work with the Green Party to counter Reform UK without splitting the left-wing vote. While Green Party leader Polanski diplomatically declined a formal coalition, Sultana’s response drew heavy criticism. She posted that “unity isn’t uniformity” and claimed Your Party would be “truly” anti-imperialist, implying the Greens greenwash NATO and maintain diplomatic ties with Israel’s apartheid regime.
Yet Sultana’s characterisation of Polanski’s positions appears puzzling given the public record. While she insinuates his stance is inadequately anti-Zionist, the Times of Israel depicts him as reflective of the Green Party’s “hostility towards the Jewish state.” Polanski has advocated for proscribing the Israeli military as a terrorist organisation, repeatedly condemned what he calls the genocidal apartheid state of Israel, and argued that Netanyahu should be arrested. This hardly resembles the diplomacy-as-usual that Sultana suggests.
On NATO, Polanski has endorsed a long-term aim of withdrawal due to the alliance’s militaristic focus, preferring an alternative rooted in diplomacy and peacebuilding rather than nuclear deterrence. However, he maintains that NATO remains necessary given current global security threats. Sultana’s claim that the Greens are “pro-NATO” oversimplifies this nuanced position.
The PoliticsJoe Controversy
Sultana’s recent interview with PoliticsJoe further strained potential left-wing unity. Beyond reiterating her critiques of the Green Party, she angered viewers by claiming that Zelenskyy is not a “friend of the working class” and that arms manufacturers are the only sector benefitting from the Ukraine conflict.
The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, a labour movement organisation, responded by stating they took no pleasure in critiquing a left-wing pro-worker politician before refuting her “barely coherent” comments. While acknowledging Zelenskyy’s government has pursued anti-worker neoliberal policies, they condemned remarks that could be interpreted as directing greater criticism toward Zelenskyy than Putin.
Sultana’s rhetoric appears increasingly disconnected from broader public sentiment. The spring 2025 Pew Research report found that 68% of UK respondents hold a favourable opinion of NATO, with an even larger majority – 72% – supporting Zelenskyy.
Sultana did make a compelling point about conflicts of interest when MPs who derive income from rental properties draft property market legislation. However, when the interviewer noted that three Your Party-affiliated MPs also fit this category and asked whether she had discussed this with them, her response was notably vague, suggesting only that “any MP” should reflect on their priorities.
She also revealed that while she prefers co-leadership with Corbyn, she would be willing to challenge him in a leadership contest if members voted for a single leader – an admission that further underscored the party’s internal tensions.
Context Matters
Any critique of Sultana must acknowledge the bigotry she faces. As the youngest Muslim MP ever elected to Parliament, Parliamentary records designate her the “most at-risk MP online.” This reflects a longer-term trend found by Amnesty International, which monitored social media in the lead-up to the 2017 election and discovered that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women receive almost half of abusive tweets directed at MPs despite there being eight times as many white MPs in the study.
On October 18th, senior political correspondent for the Daily Express, Christian Calgie, endorsed a social media post calling for Sultana – a British citizen and democratically elected MP – to be deported. She contended this was motivated by Islamophobia. Whilst there was cross-bench condemnation of Calgie’s vile comments, inflammatory Islamophobic rhetoric directed at Sultana has also come from inside the House of Commons.
In January 2024, when Sultana called on then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Sunak disgustingly retorted that she should “call on Hamas and the Houthis to de-escalate the situation.” Tory MP and former Minister Andrew Percy followed up that “too many people give a free pass to the terrorists who perpetrated the worst murder of Jews,” despite Sultana’s repeated condemnation of the October 7th 2023 attacks.
A Difficult Balance
Sultana is undeniably controversial. She captures justifiable anger and distrust of establishment politics and has been a fierce fighter for the working class, standing on the frontlines of social justice movements in Britain today. She is equally disparaged by neoliberal and far-right commentators for her leftist beliefs.
As a leftist and longtime supporter of much of what Sultana stands for, I find myself – like many of her potential supporters – not aligned with her undiplomatic comments regarding the Green Party. I disapprove of her potentially over-emphasised criticism of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and find her focus on arms manufacturers’ profits misguided in light of the current conflict.
Disagreeing with politicians – even those with whom you mostly agree – is beneficial for democratic debate and essential to ensure elected officials better reflect those they represent. The question facing the British left is whether principled disagreement can coexist with the strategic unity needed to prevent a Reform UK victory. With Your Party’s internal chaos and Sultana’s increasingly isolated positions, that unity seems more elusive than ever.
