New Zarah Sultana row could collapse Your Party founding conference

Your Party’s founding conference could collapse over its latest row, it has emerged.

Zarah Sultana, the party’s co-founder with Jeremy Corbyn, claims she has been frozen out of the planning of its inaugural conference at the end of this month, The Telegraph understands.

The party has been embroiled in controversy after Ms Sultana failed to transfer £800,000 held in a bank account from the party’s original launch to another account backed by Mr Corbyn.

A spokesman for Ms Sultana said she transferred £200,000 earlier this week and another £200,000 on Wednesday, with further instalments to be paid “as soon as possible”.

Ms Sultana and Mr Corbyn have spoken in recent days, The Telegraph understands, but sources close to Ms Sultana claim she has been excluded by organisers of the conference, which is due to take place in Liverpool over the weekend of Nov 29-30.

Any conference details had come as a surprise to the Coventry South MP, the sources claimed.

Ms Sultana has announced an event on the eve of the conference, but it is understood that she does not yet know if or when she will be able to address delegates at the party’s first annual gathering.

A Your Party source said on Wednesday: “Things are what they look like.”

But another senior Your Party source called the accusations a “massive narrative leap – and, not for the first time, from Zarah. She literally froze herself out. To say you’re frozen out, it’s reality turned upside down”.

It is understood Your Party organisers have faced financial strain in the run-up to the founding conference, and have relied on volunteers, in part because Ms Sultana was holding the funds.

Ms Sultana’s own sold-out event, which is not included in a ticket for the conference, advertises a series of speakers from unions and councils, as well as the MP herself.

But the list does not include Mr Corbyn, nor any other member of the Independent Alliance of MPs that Ms Sultana previously accused of being a “sexist boys’ club”.

The payment portal for the rally, which costs £5 per ticket with a “solidarity” option of donating £10, says: “Your payment will go to Zarah Sultana.”

A senior Your Party source said: “She described it as ‘the Your Party rally’ – Corbyn not invited. Why wouldn’t you say she’s freezing Corbyn out? And nor is the money going to Your Party.”

Last week, a statement was posted to Your Party’s official X account with the signatures of all its would-be MPs – with the notable exception of Ms Sultana. The post expressed frustration over “deliberate acts” preventing more than £800,000 of funds from being transferred to Your Party.

Ms Sultana runs MOU Operations Ltd, a company set up earlier this year to support the new party’s launch. MOU held £850,000 donated through a membership portal created by Ms Sultana without permission from her fellow MPs at the height of the party’s feud.

All money and data was intended to be transferred to Your Party after it was registered with the Electoral Commission on Sept 30.

The Telegraph understands that Ms Sultana offered to transfer £600,000, and retain the rest in case of future legal or administrative expenses, but this was rejected by Your Party organisers.

A spokesman for Ms Sultana said: “As a co-founder of Your Party, Zarah will be addressing the founding conference, as members expect.

“She’s fighting for maximum member democracy and is confident the movement will not accept any attempt to exclude or sabotage her, as happened before her appearance on Question Time last week.”

A  source close to Your Party said: “What the party’s done is alienated a huge segment of the population – the party’s been in a bubble, the leadership contestants have been embroiled in that central London bubble. The streets of the north west don’t see things the way they do.

“They’re not appealing to the masses at all. Whilst they might be loud on social media, that’s all they are.”

Tensions arose between Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana when she was the first to announce the creation of Your Party in July, despite the former Labour leader not wanting her as a co-founder.

Iqbal Mohamed, one of the six MPs involved in the Your Party launch, wrote on Saturday in a post on X: “All four of us [Independent Alliance members] voted for Zarah as co-leader against Jeremy’s wishes and advice. Being co-leader was a condition/prerequisite for Zarah before she would resign from the Labour Party.”

In the post, Mr Mohamed denied allegations that he, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain – who has since quit the party – have been involved in attempts to “freeze Zarah out of Your Party”.

When he announced he was leaving the party on Friday, Mr Hussain cited its “toxic” culture, claiming he had been forced out by “serious” and “damaging” infighting.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]