Your Party: Corbyn's comeback?

Four weeks ago, the left-wing MP Zarah Sultana announced that she was leaving Labour to lead a new party with Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn seemed taken aback by her announcement, said Megan Kenyon in The New Statesman: allies of the former Labour leader suggested that Sultana had "jumped the gun", and some seemed very unhappy about it.

But last Thursday, the "magic grandpa" finally "caught up", and confirmed the launch of "a new kind of political party" to "take on the rich and powerful", upend Britain's "rigged" political system, and campaign for wealth redistribution. It is going to be "very different", he added, and "fun".

It is not clear how seriously you should take a party that launches before it has even decided on a name for itself, said Tom Peck in The Times. Many assumed it was called Your Party, because on its website, people had been urged to sign up to Your Party (half a million already have); Corbyn, however, explained that they were inviting the public to submit suggestions for the party's name, ahead of a vote at their first conference. Sultana has proposed "The Left Party".

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It is easy to mock, but if I were Keir Starmer, I would be taking this "very seriously", said Ross Clark in The Sun. Corbyn won about 12 million votes in 2017, roughly three million more than Starmer did last year. And Corbyn and Sultana have already outlined two positions that will "hit the right buttons" for disenchanted members of the Labour Left: ending arms sales to Israel, and renationalising utility firms.

While "Your Party" has no chance of forming the next government, it might well contribute to the downfall of the current one – just as Reform UK's rise has hurt the Tories. With the electorate in a volatile mood, said Richard Johnson on UnHerd, Corbyn's promises – which include free childcare and free public transport – could win over a lot of voters. Polls suggest that a "well-organised" Corbyn-led party could take 10% of the vote, said Sean O'Grady in The Independent. But the idea of a "well-organised" Corbynite party is an "oxymoron", given the Left's taste for "rows, delusion and chaos". And there's little sign that Corbyn and Sultana are destined for a long and prosperous political marriage: they couldn't even coordinate their schedules for last week's launch – Sultana was in Coventry at the time.

Still, it raises a dilemma for Labour, said Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times: should it tilt left, "to stem the flow of support for Corbynistas", effectively ceding the "red wall" to Reform – or retrench, and continue to woo voters in the North of England?