Fledgling UK left-wing party hit by turmoil as co-founder stages conference boycott

LONDON

A co-founder of the UK’s fledgling left-wing Your Party has boycotted the opening day of its inaugural conference, intensifying concerns over internal divisions before the party gets on its feet.

The dispute erupted after it emerged that members of the Socialist Workers Party had been expelled over rules prohibiting dual membership.

A spokesperson for co-founder Zarah Sultana on Sunday condemned the expulsions as a “witch hunt,” saying she would not return to the Liverpool conference hall until delivering her speech on Sunday.

“We must build a party that welcomes all socialists,” the spokesperson said.

Speaking to Sky News, Sultana said the “orchestrators of that witch hunt were nameless, faceless bureaucrats” who were close to Jeremy Corbyn, her fellow co-founder and a former leader of the Labour Party when it was in opposition.

She insisted the pair were “definitely friends,” though when asked a day earlier, Corbyn described them as “colleagues.”

Rocky start

Your Party, formed in July, has faced persistent disputes over structure, finances, and policy. Two MPs quit in recent weeks, citing a “toxic culture.”

The conference was intended to present a united front ahead of local elections next May.

The expulsions have angered some on the party’s grassroots left.

Socialist Workers Party national secretary Lewis Nieslen, who was removed from the Your Party on Friday en route to the conference, said: “With far-right Reform UK topping the polls and (Prime Minister Keir) Starmer paving the way for them, we urgently need a new party that unites the whole left. It’s wrong for those at the top of Your Party to turn fire on socialists like us who have been key to building Your Party on the ground.”

Members of the socialist group Counterfire were also banned from the conference.

Michael Lavalette, an academic and local council member who helped set up the party’s Preston branch, said he was denied entry after claims that Counterfire was planning a disruption, which he called “simply not true.”

Sultana has advocated “maximum member democracy” and believes any socialist should be permitted to join, even if they hold other party memberships.

Her allies have blasted the expulsions as a purge targeting her supporters.