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20th September 2025
12:06pm BST

Zarah Sultana has hired defamation lawyers in the wake of a fall out with Jeremy Corbyn over the Your Party debacle.
Your Party is barely off the ground, but has already hit a road block after an apparent miscommunication over paid memberships led to Zarah Sultana saying she has been subjected to a "sexist boys' club".
It comes after an email was sent out on Thursday offering membership to the party for £5.
However, a follow up statement signed by Corbyn, but not Sultana, said that this was not intended and urged people to cancel direct debits.
In response Sultana put out a scathing statement about the conduct of the new party saying she has been subject to sexism.
Now, the MP for Coventry South has said that she is hiring defamation lawyers citing "baseless attacks" intending to "hold to account those responsible for making them.
In her latest statement she wrote: "Over the last 24 hours, a number of false and defamatory statements have been published about me concerning the launch of Your Party’s membership portal.
"The portal was properly launched in accordance with the party’s roadmap.
"At no point was members’ data misused or put at risk.
"These baseless attacks on my character are politically-motivated and I intend to hold to account those responsible for making them.
"To that end, I have this evening instructed specialist defamation lawyers.
"To avoid prejudicing or complicating any future legal process, I will not be making any further comment about this matter at this time."
Earlier this week Sultana released a statement in order to clarify the apparent miscommunication at the heart of the party.
She wrote: "I want to clarity the sitiaton regrading the membership system for Your Party.
Neither of this week's emails had the dual authorisation of both myself and Jeremy which was the agreement made at the the start of this process.
She claimed she had been "frozen out" by the MPs who signed the statement against the memberships earlier today citing her reason was to launch a membership portal so that "supporters could continue to engage and organise."
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. They have refused to allow any other women with voting rights on the Working Group, blocking the gender-balanced committee that both Jeremy and I signed up to."
The rest of the statement reads:
"It is also important to be transparent about why this situation has arisen. I do not believe members will accept Karie Murphy and her associates having sole financial control of members’ money and sole constitutional control over our conference. This undermines the democratic principles we agreed to uphold.
From the outset, we agreed that MOU Operations Ltd - stewarded by Jamie Driscoll, Beth Winter and Andrew Feinstein - would hold and manage funds on behalf of members until the founding conference, at which point they would be transferred to a new entity established democratically. Every penny raised so far has gone to MOU Operations, and this continues to be the case within our new membership portal. This, to be clear, is members’ money - and our members must decide how it is spent.
"This arrangement was designed to ensure transparency, accountability and protection against the concentration of financial control in the hands of any one person.
"I regret that today’s statement has misrepresented the situation. My actions have been consistent with our shared commitment: to build an open, democratic and member-led organisation. I will continue to fight for a process where members’ money, data and voices are safeguarded, not centralised under the control of one individual.
"I am calling on Jeremy to meet with me and agree to make public all agreed structures, processes and decision-making protocols. Doing this will restore hope for our members, and ensure nothing like this can ever happen again. This party is more important than any one person, and we all owe it to the movement to deliver a truly democratic and socialist party.
"The democratic founding conference of this party will take place in late November.
"I will keep fighting for a minimum programme for maximum democracy, you have my word.
"No stitch-ups, no coronations: the members must decide."
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