Hastings Welcomes Your Party
Just days after the damaging bust-up between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, the newly formed ‘Your Party’ hosted a public meeting at St John’s Hall on Brittany Road last Tuesday (30 September). The event was attended by approximately 150 people and featured a zoom call with Andrew Feinstein, the former African National Congress MP and associate of Nelson Mandela, who challenged Keir Starmer in the 2024 general election in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency.
The public meeting was organised by a coalition of local left-wing groups, including the Hastings IndependentsGroup, the Hastings People’s Party, the Hastings branch of the Socialist Workers Party, and the Hastings & District Trades Union Council. Their aim was to raise the profile of the new party ahead of a planned visit to Hastings by its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on 18 October.
Your Party has had a troubled launch. The initial joint-leader, Zarah Sultana, sent out a formal membership invitation by email to those who had expressed interest in the new party in September. This resulted in more than 22,000 people signing up. If all had paid the £55 annual membership, the new party could have raised over £1 million.
However, within hours Jeremy Corbyn disavowed the “unauthorised email”, and urged supporters to cancel payments. There followed a series of angry exchanges between the two, with Sultana alleging the party was becoming a “sexist boys’ club” and there were threats of legal action.
After days of dispute, mediation attempts paved the way for a re-launch of the party and a second membership drive with those who joined under Zarah Sultana given an assurance that their “data and membership is secure and will be migrated across”.
When Your Party was subsequently registered with the Electoral Commission, Mr Corbyn was listed as sole leader, and the new party declared assets of over £855,000.
In his video address, Mr Feinstein outlined the aims of the new party and its vision for a “grassroots-driven” political system. This movement is “not about Jeremy [Corbyn], but about each and every one of us,” he said.
Labour was the main focus of his attack. He called Keir Starmer’s Labour Conference speech delivered in Liverpool earlier that day “the longest resignation statement ever made”. He said the Labour Leader was as culpable as Benjamin Netanyahu for what was happening in Gaza and said he would like to see him in the Hague to be prosecuted.
Local councillors Paul Barnett, Andy Batsford, John Cannan, Nigel Sinden, Mike Turner and Simon Willis, who resigned from the Labour Party in December 2023 to form the Hastings Independent Group, announced that they would all join Your Party. Cllr Barnett told the meeting that they fully supported Your Party’s mission to build a fairer, more democratic and more inclusive politics across the UK.
Whilst the meeting was free to attend, people were encouraged to make a donation to the new political party. Those who had already sent in contributions before Your Party was formally launched were assured that their money would be switched over to the new party shortly.
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