A suspended Labour MP has quit the Party after 14 years to form a new one. Zarah Sultana said she was creating a party with Jeremy Corbyn but reports have suggested he has not agreed. The former Labour leader is said to be furious and bewildered by the announcement.
Ms Sultana said Keir Starmer’s party has “completely failed to improve people’s lives” in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday night.
The left-wing MP, who was sitting as an independent in the Commons, also took aim at Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage. She said: “Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”
“Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper. Just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population. Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene and the two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises. A year ago, I was suspended by the Labour Party for voting to abolish the two-child benefit cap and lift 400,000 children out of poverty. I’d do it again. I voted against scrapping winter fuel payments for pensioners. I’d do it again. Now, the government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”
Ms Sultana was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer along with several other Labour MPs. While others had the whip restored, Ms Sultana remained an independent.
The Coventry South MP added: “Meanwhile, a billionaire-backed grifter is leading the polls, because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives. And across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.
“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.
“We are not going to take this anymore. We’re not an island of strangers; we’re an island that’s suffering.
Zarah Sultana speaking at a London protest (Image: Getty)
“We need homes and lives we can actually afford, not rip-off bills we pay every month to a tiny elite bathing in cash. We need our money spent on public services, not forever wars.
“In 2029, the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism.
“Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them. It’s time the rest of us had one.”
Mr Corbyn was elected as an independent MP last year.
It also comes just days after polling revealed a new Corbyn-led party would siphon support from both Labour and the Greens at an election.
Polling by More In Common revealed that said party would take in 10% of the vote.
Labour’s support would backslide by three percentage points, the Greens’ by four, and the SNP’s by one as a result.
But Reform would increase its polling lead by three points at the same time – while the Tories and Liberal Democrats would remain unaffected by the new hard-left bloc.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions. Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”
