ZARAH Sultana has boycotted the first day of the founding conference of Your Party, the organisation she co-founded with Jeremy Corbyn, as the event descended into chaos after a “purge” of her supporters.
The Coventry South MP appeared outside the ACC in Liverpool on Saturday for a brief press conference and to meet members. She came in tow with councillors, including James Giles who claimed he had been barred from attending the event.
Your Party are said to have refused access for Giles because of a “private matter” relating to an Information Commissioner’s Office investigation.
Giles told reporters: “I’ve never been contacted by the ICO about any affair, whether to do with Your Party or otherwise, so the only reason that I can put it down to is that there is clearly a factional witch hunt going on here, that’s being done here without members’ consent.”
Speaking outside the conference, Sultana said: “We are not here to expel people, we are not here to build a culture of witch hunts, where people’s social media are stalked and people are putting resources into expelling people.
“We’re here to fight for working-class people and this culture is what the Labour Party is known for and that’s not what we’re doing here.”
Members of the Socialist Workers’ Party were told on the eve of the gathering they had been expelled. Your Party’s interim founding constitution prevents people from being members of another national political party.
It has become the subject of intense debate between the fledgling political project, with Sultana’s allies arguing that members should be allowed to belong to other parties.
Members of Stand Up to Racism, linked with the Socialist Workers’ Party, were removed from their stall at the exhibition hall on Saturday and Preston independent councillor Michael Lavalette was initially also not allowed to attend the conference.
It is understood that despite organisers' fears he planned to disrupt the event, Lavalette was eventually allowed in later on Saturday.
Asked about Sultana’s absence, Giles said: “Zarah can speak for herself. Zarah will be coming in tomorrow.”
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He added that Sultana had been given six passes for her team “in the same way that Jeremy’s got people in there for his support team” and that his had been denied.
Asked who was behind the “witch hunt”, Giles said: “I’m not saying its from Jeremy but I’m saying it’s from the unelected interim executive team.”
Corbyn gave the opening speech of the conference on Saturday morning and is scheduled to give the closing address on Sunday.
Sultana will be giving a speech on Sunday, after voting on the party’s constitution has closed.
This means she will speak after members have decided on the contentious dual-membership issue and the leadership structure. Giles called this a "stitch up".
Sultana prefers a shared leadership model made up of elected lay members, rather than a sole leader.
It is understood that she would like to see former Respect leader Salma Yaqoob and Andrew Feinstein, the former African National Congress politician who ran against Keir Starmer at the General Election, in this position.
Corbyn insisted that members who had been expelled were in breach of Your Party’s rules. Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning, he claimed that people were asked on joining to confirm “they are not a member of a party that is registered with the Electoral Commission” and incorrectly claimed that the SWP were registered with the elections watchdog.
Corbyn added: “I’m not running a witch hunt against anybody that is a very absurd thing to say.”
During his opening speech, Corbyn urged members to “learn from our problems, learn from our mistakes, learn from over-reaching”.
He said: “Never be too high and mighty [that] you can’t learn new lessons, that surely has to be the way we move forward, the way we grow stronger.”
Referencing how he had Sultana had sent messages of “solidarity” to each others’ events on Friday night, Corbyn added: “As a party, we’ve got to come together and be united because division and disunity will not serve the interests of the people.”
The former Labour leader called for a “membership oversight committee” to “steward” the establishment of Your Party branches, and said he wanted to see control of the party given to its members “as soon as possible”.
The party will decide on a leader or a group of leaders, depending on which model is adopted, by the end of next February.
Corbyn has also expressed support for standing candidates at next year's Holyrood election, preferring running on the regional list rather than constituency ballot.
A Your Party spokesperson said: “Members of another national political party signed up to Your Party in contravention of clearly-stated membership rules – and these rules were enforced.
“We're focused on hosting a democratic founding conference with thousands of members coming together to debate and decide the big issues. This is politics outside the Westminster mould: from the ground up, not the top down.”
Sunday will see the results of members' votes on the constitution announced and the party's name.
Members will decide whether to allow people to join if they are members of other national political parties and whether they will have a single leader or be led by a group of lay members.
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