A row has broken out at the top of Your Party after Jeremy Corbyn accused co-leader Zarah Sultana of sending out unauthorised emails encouraging paid membership.
Meanwhile Ms Sultana admitted she had broken ranks, but claimed she did so after being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys club”.
Suspicions were aroused when Mr Corbyn released a statement on social media warning followers to ignore an email they received today about a membership portal with a new domain name, and cancel any direct debits they may have set up.
The statement, which said legal action was being considered, was signed by the former Labour leader and four other independent MPs who were part of the founding process of Your Party – Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Mohamed and Shockat Adam.
However it was not signed by Ms Sultana, who quit Labour to launch the new left-wing party with Mr Corbyn in July and has been sharing links to the membership portal today.
Mr Corbyn’s letter said: “This morning, an unauthorised email was sent to all yourparty.uk supporters with details of a supposed membership portal hosted in a new domain name.
“Legal advice is being taken. That email should be ignored by all supporters. If any direct debits have been set up, they should be immediately cancelled.”
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Ms Sultana issued a statement shortly afterwards in which she admitted emails sent to followers this week did not have the “dual authorisation of both myself and Jeremy – which was the agreement made at the start of this process”.
However she said: “After being sidelined by the MPs named in today’s statement and effectively frozen out of the official accounts, I took the step of launching a membership portal so that supporters could continue to engage and organise.”
She insisted that this was in line with the roadmap set out to members on Monday and that this is a “safe, secure, legitimate portal for the party”.
She added: “My sole motivation has been to safeguard the grassroots involvement that is essential to building this party.
“Unfortunately, I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys’ club: I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely.”
She called on Mr Corbyn to meet with her and “agree to make public all agreed structures, processes and decision-making protocols” to ensure that “nothing like this can ever happen again”.
The emails sent out by Ms Sultana had encouraged people to sign up for £5 a week or £55 a year.
‘The right wing will love this’
In a post earlier on Thursday, the now independent MP for Coventry South had claimed 20,000 paid members had signed up.
Sam T, who signed up to the monthly membership, told Sky News he is considering cancelling his membership and “might as well go and give £5 to someone on the street”.
Another supporter, Layla C from Glasgow, said she has cancelled her membership until she gets clarity on the situation, saying: “I don’t think it’s a very good look for either of them. The right-wing will love this and it’s not looking good.”
However Ben Clinton from London said that while he wanted to see the co-leaders work together he is not put off by the row.
“If You’ve got an old boys club who are more concerned about pointless control freakery in the background, then I think it’s time for a new generation to take control,” he said.
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Critics of the pair were quick to ridicule the situation.
Labour MP Connor Naismith tweeted: “It’s going really well I see.”
He added: “Worth saying that this outfit is talking about contesting elections… The point of which would be to persuade people that they are capable of running the British state.”
Row ‘brewing for some time’
The rift comes after Your Party told supporters earlier this week that membership would open by the end of September, followed by national assembles in October and an online vote on the new name for the party, before a founding conference in November.
A source close to Your Party told Sky News that a row between the co-leaders had been brewing “for some time”.
The new organisation got off to a rocky start when it was announced by Ms Sultana in early July – in a move that appeared to blindside Mr Corbyn.
The pair confirmed the launch a few weeks later, sharing a link to a website called Yourparty.co.uk, but then clarified that was not actually the name and members would decide that in due course.
As Sky News previously reported, a debate quickly raged about its leadership model, with split opinions on whether Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana should co-lead the party or whether outside candidates should be given the chance to run in a “grassroots” contest.
