Zarah Sultana leaves Labour and announces plans to co-lead a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn’s alliance, catching allies by surprise.
Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South and a prominent voice on the Labour left, has announced her resignation from the Labour Party and declared plans to co-lead the founding of a new political party alongside Jeremy Corbyn’s Independent Alliance. The move has both energised grassroots campaigners and exposed simmering tensions within the fledgling group of independent left-wing MPs.
In a statement posted on Thursday evening, Sultana, 31, accused both Labour and the Conservatives of offering the British public “nothing but managed decline and broken promises,” adding that Westminster was “broken” and no longer capable of serving ordinary people. She urged supporters to “join us” in what she described as the creation of a “new party for hope and justice”.
Her announcement has surprised several members of the Independent Alliance, particularly Corbyn himself, who has long advocated for a more consensus-based approach to forming a new political force but has stopped short of endorsing a formal party structure or leadership.
According to The Guardian report, sources familiar with internal discussions said Corbyn was not informed in advance of Sultana’s statement and was frustrated by what some in his camp see as a premature move that could disrupt fragile unity within the group. While there is a shared ambition among the alliance to build an alternative political movement focused on poverty, inequality and international peace, questions around timing, structure and leadership remain unresolved.
Corbyn, 76, has previously suggested that the group could evolve into something more formal but has resisted calls to assume a leadership title. Speaking on ITV’s Peston programme earlier this week, he said: “That grouping [of independents] will come together, there will be an alternative,” but he stopped short of confirming whether this would take the form of a registered political party.
Sultana’s decision marks a significant moment in the evolution of the Independent Alliance, which now includes five MPs—matching the number held by Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party. The alliance has more seats than the Green Party or Plaid Cymru, both of which have four MPs.
Sultana was elected as a Labour MP in 2019 but lost the party whip in September 2023 after defying the leadership by voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap. At the time, she stated: “I’d do it again,” and reiterated that her actions were motivated by a commitment to lifting children out of poverty. In her latest statement, she added: “Now the government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”
Corbyn, who led the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020, was suspended in 2020 over his response to the EHRC’s report on antisemitism. He retained his Islington North seat as an independent in the 2024 general election after being blocked from standing as a Labour candidate by Keir Starmer’s leadership.
The Independent Alliance’s ranks now include MPs Shockat Adam (Leicester South), Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr), Adnan Hussain (Blackburn), and Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley), many of whom defeated Labour candidates in 2024 over the party’s stance on Gaza and foreign policy.
The Guardian reported that key figures in the group have been meeting privately since last autumn to discuss forming a new party. One such meeting, held in September 2023, included former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and a number of ex-independent candidates. The initiative, tentatively named Collective, was framed as an “incubator” for emerging left-wing leaders and intended to contest seats at the next general election.
At the time, Corbyn’s presence at the meeting was interpreted by some as an endorsement, but sources close to him later clarified that he had attended “to listen and share a variety of views about the way forward for the left,” rather than to officially endorse the initiative, The Guardian reported.
Despite the apparent tensions, Corbyn has remained optimistic about the group’s collaboration. “The Alliance group of MPs has worked very hard and very well together over the past year in Parliament, and we’re coming up to our first anniversary,” he said earlier this week.
With Sultana’s declaration now public, the group faces an urgent need to clarify its internal dynamics and public messaging, particularly as Labour under Starmer consolidates its position at the political centre. Some analysts warn that a fractured left-wing vote could pose challenges to both Labour and independent candidates in marginal seats at the next general election.
Nonetheless, supporters of the new movement argue that it fills a critical void in British politics, offering an alternative rooted in social justice, anti-poverty policies, and international solidarity.
