Attacks on Zarah Sultana are aimed at sabotaging her ahead of a Your Party leadership battle, her allies have claimed.
It comes as the fledgling left-wing party is hit by another row, with one of its independent MPs, Adnan Hussain, resigning from the founding process and hitting out at a culture of “persistent infighting, factionalism and a struggle for power”.
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Ms Sultana, who co-launched Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn in July, has been at the centre of a row over donations after taking over a company that collected supporters’ money while the party was being formally constituted.
She has insisted she is transferring it over in stages for legal reasons, but in a statement on social media last night, Your Party said it was “frustrated” that the bulk of the money was “beyond its reach” and that it was pursuing the full amount immediately.
The statement dropped minutes before Ms Sultana appeared on BBC Question Time.
A source close to her told Sky News: “It’s unbelievable really. She’s transferring money as promised, so it’s available for conference, they know perfectly well they’re demanding something impossible, and they wait until she’s about to appear on BBC QT to use official party social media channels to publish that.”
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They added: “It’s hard to interpret it as anything other than deliberate sabotage, because they’re worried she’ll win a leadership contest because her vision is much closer to what members are looking for.”
Your Party members will elect a leader in the new year. Exactly how that will work will be fleshed out at the founding conference in just a few weeks’ time.
The draft founding documents, which members will vote on when they gather in Liverpool, have proposed a single leadership model, with elections to commence in the new year.
It could result in a bitter battle if Ms Sultana and Mr Corbyn both go for the top job.
Allies of Mr Corbyn point to his experience as Labour leader and say Ms Sultana can’t be trusted because of her habit of making unilateral decisions – such as announcing Your Party early, and launching an unauthorised membership portal.
But backers of Ms Sultana see her as a fresh face for the left and believe her vision for the party is more democratic.
Your Party ‘operating on a shoestring’
Your Party promised to be a socialist alternative to the rise of the right, but it has been marred by factionalism and division from the beginning.
In a statement on its official social media last night, Your Party said that hundreds of thousands of pounds were donated to the party “by supporters in good faith, but have since remained beyond its reach”, which was described as being “extremely frustrating and disheartening”.
Although it didn’t mention Ms Sultana by name, as Sky News has reported she is the sole director of MOU Operations, the company holding those donations – some £800k.
This week she sent over £200k from that pot and laid out a plan to send a further £400k in tranches before the conference. She has said the rest will be sent once the company’s’ liabilities are settled, with a plan to wind it up by the end of March.
But Your Party’s statement said the “small portion” that had been sent over was “insufficient” and it wants the full amount now.
It added that volunteers were working on a “shoestring budget” and while “their efforts are heroic… without funding Your Party’s capacity has been severely restricted”.
The statement was signed by Mr Corbyn and the independence alliance (IA) of MPs who have been stewarding the party’s founding process – Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, Shockat Adam and Iqbal Mohamed.
A Your Party source told Sky News that Mr Corbyn signed it against his better judgment after being railroaded by others.
‘Toxic atmosphere’
Meanwhile Mr Hussain has since resigned, issuing a lengthy statement on Friday which made claims of “clique-like behaviour” and a “toxic atmosphere” more focused on a struggle for power than a “commitment to the common good”.
He also raised concern about the treatment of Muslim men involved in Your Party, saying the rhetoric towards them “has been disturbingly similar to the forces the left claims to oppose”.
Mr Hussain is the independent MP for Blackburn, a constituency he won on a largely pro-Gaza platform. The independent alliance was formed after the general election last year, but there has been criticism of its involvement in Your Party as some of the group are considered to hold conservative views.
Mr Hussain has previously faced criticism for saying there should ‘third spaces’ for trans women, which is at odds with the views of Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana.
Ms Sultana has previously fallen out with him and the independent alliance, branding them a “sexist boys club” in September when she launched her own membership drive – a move that triggered a major row and is still being investigated by the UK’s data watchdog.
The source close to Ms Sultana said Mr Hussain’s departure shows what a “strategically disastrous” move it was to involve in Your Party’s founding process MPs who “do not share the politics” of its supporters, claiming efforts to “free” her out had backfired.
