Corbyn and Sultana announced their new movement in July, positioning it as a response to disillusionment among Labour members over the party’s stance on Gaza and its welfare policy. Sultana claimed the party is "going to change British politics forever.”
Zarah Sultana with former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2021 (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty Images
Men were more likely than women to consider joining “Your Party”, with 31 per cent of male Labour members in favour of it, along with members who joined Labour around 2015, during the start of Corbyn’s leadership (44 per cent). Support was strongest among those who backed Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 leadership race, with 70 per cent saying they would consider joining the new party.
By contrast, members in London were the least likely to say they would join the movement (17 per cent), as were those aged 18–24 (just 10 per cent).
While half (51 per cent) of those polled believe the new party will take votes from Labour at the next general election, and increase the chances of a Reform or Conservative government, only three per cent said they believed the Corbyn-Sultana project could attract enough support to form its own government.
The poll will be a boost for “Your Party” organisers amid tensions between Corbyn and Sultana over Labour’s handling of the party’s antisemitism crisis.
Sultana recently drew attention to Labour’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism – a definition widely accepted by British Jews – during Corbyn’s leadership.
Speaking to the New Left Review, she claimed her ally had “capitulated to the IHRA definition of antisemitism”.
Zarah Sultana has claimed that Jeremy Corbyn 'capitulated' over antisemitism while he was Labour leader (Image: Getty)AFP via Getty Images
Responding to Sultana’s criticism, Corbyn told Middle East Eye it was “not really necessary for her to bring all that up... but that’s what she decided to do.”
The independent Islington North MP said he had been “under a great deal of pressure” to adopt the IHRA definition, which was backed by “a huge majority” of Labour’s National Executive Committee, “including people very close to me”.
Corbyn continued that he had been concerned by the accompanying examples from the IHRA: “A definition that requires examples to give it life and legs shows to me there’s something badly wrong with the definition in the first place.”
He added: “The party did adopt the IHRA definition, personally I was more in favour of the Jerusalem Declaration, which is simply saying that antisemitism is wrong.”
The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) was drafted as a challenge to the IHRA two years after the Labour Party adopted the latter definition.
Crucially, the JDA definition removes the IHRA’s warning against comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, saying: “Even if contentious, it is not antisemitic, in and of itself, to compare Israel with other historical cases”.
Corbyn said: “It is wrong to be antisemitic, and it is perfectly possible to discuss the behaviour and policies of the State of Israel without being antisemitic... many people in Israel do that all the time.”
Commenting on the stance “Your Party” will take, he said it would “have an absolutely anti-racist position” and that he wished it to adopt “some kind of general declaration of respect for all communities, all ethnicities, all languages, all faiths and no faiths, so it will be a generally anti-racist position.”
Asked about Sultana’s position as a “proud” anti-Zionist, Corbyn did not appear to confirm his position on Zionism. In 2015 he said that he would “always recognise” Israel.
Meanwhile, one of Corbyn’s closest political allies has expressed reservations about the “Your Party” project.
Independent MP for Hackney, Diane Abbott, said she advised Corbyn against setting up the new party over concerns that it would struggle to “absolutely win” in the first-past-the-post voting system.
Speaking at an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Abbott, who was shadow home secretary in Corbyn’s Labour party and was recently suspended from Labour for the second time over her comments on anti-Jewish prejudice, said: "There were people around Jeremy encouraging him to set up a new party, and I told him not to.
Diane Abbott has seemingly doubled down on comments made in 2023, in which she suggested that Jews do not experience racismGetty Images
"If it wasn't first-past-the-post, then you can see how a new party could come through, but I understand why he did it."
Despite Abbott's concerns, the Survation polling suggests there is an appetite among parts of the Labour movement for a more radical alternative.
The poll found that 59 per cent of members want Labour to move further left, while 35 per cent would prefer the party to continue on its current course.
Damian Lyons Lowe, chief executive of Survation, told LabourList: “‘Consideration’ of a new party is a softer measure than outright support, but these findings nevertheless reflect the residual sympathy for Jeremy Corbyn and frustration over his departure from Labour.”
He added: “The extent to which ‘Your Party’ becomes an electoral problem for Labour is an open question. The task of creating a viable new party is formidable, particularly given the policy differences likely among its founding MPs outside their shared stance on Gaza.”
