Far-left MP Zarah Sultana has asked supporters to ‘Join Team Zarah’ after Jeremy Corbyn was said to be ‘furious at being blindsided’ by her announcement of their new political party.
The Coventry South representative re-distributed a sign-up form on her X account this afternoon insisting ‘we’re going to build something special’.
It followed her dramatic decision to quit Labour on Thursday night and declare she would be ‘co-leading’ a new left-wing party with Mr Corbyn.
The ardent pro-Palestinian MP is a long-term critic of Keir Starmer, and was already sitting as an independent after being stripped of the whip.
But the move to announce the party’s inception appeared to catch Mr Corbyn by surprise with the former Labour leader said to be ‘furious and bewildered’.
He commented on the development yesterday afternoon to insist ‘discussions are ongoing’ – saying Ms Sultana would ‘help us build a new alternative’ but seemingly stopping short of endorsing her as a ‘co-leader’.
But neither Ms Sultana nor Mr Corbyn were ready to announce the name of their new political group – so he may be less than impressed to learn that their efforts to sign up supporters have been branded ‘Team Zarah’.
Ms Sultana is urging people online to ‘join our team’ via the ‘Team Zarah’ sign-up form adding ‘we need your support’.
The MP is so far some 15,000 signatures off her 51,200 sign-up target.
She shared a link to the form as an opportunity to ‘sign up here and stay updated’ and accompanied it with an extract from a Guardian article referencing her decision to ‘quit [Labour] to co-lead a left-wing alternative with Jeremy Corbyn’.
There still appears to be no decision on what the name of the new party will be – with with the form shared under the url ‘action network’, asking for supporters’ name, email, phone number and home address.
The sign-up page reads: ‘We don’t have billionaire donors or press baron friends. That’s why need your support.
‘Wherever you live, join our team for a brighter future.’
Ms Sultana is pictured opposite Parliament wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh.
Options mooted for the name of the new party have so far included ‘Real Change’ and ‘Peace and Justice Project’.
Mr Corbyn had been hinting strongly he wanted to form a new party – with polls suggesting it could attract 10 per cent of the left-wing vote and inflict major damage on Labour.
In an interview on Wednesday the 76-year-old claimed there was a ‘thirst’ among voters ‘for an alternative view to be put’.
Since the General Election and his expulsion from Labour last year, Mr Corbyn has been part of the Independent Alliance, a loose grouping of independent MPs with left wing political views.
In her announcement of the new party on Thursday, Ms Sultana had said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.’
She said ‘Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper’ and the ‘two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises’.
‘A year ago I was suspended by the Labour Party for voting to abolish the two-child benefit cap and list 400,000 children out of poverty,’ the former Labour MP added.
‘I’d do it again. I voted against scrapping winter fuel payments for pensioners. I’d do it again.
‘Now, the Government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much’, she said.
In a post on social media yesterday afternoon, Mr Corbyn said: ‘Real change is coming.
‘One year on from the election, this Labour Government has refused to deliver the change people expected and deserved. Poverty, inequality and war are not inevitable. Our country needs to change direction, now.
‘Congratulations to Zarah Sultana on her principled decision to leave the Labour Party. I am delighted that she will help us build a real alternative.
‘The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape. Discussions are ongoing – and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.
‘Together, we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.’
Appearing on ITV’s Peston on Wednesday – after opposing plans to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group – he said he was working with groups ‘all around the country’.
‘That grouping will come together. There will be an alternative view and there will be an alternative put there which is about a society that deals with poverty, inequality and a foreign policy that’s based on peace rather than war,’ Mr Corbyn added.
Asked if he would like to lead the party he said: ‘I’m here to work, I’m here to serve the people in the way I’ve always tried to do.’