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3rd July 2025
08:36pm BST
Zarah Sultana has announced she is resigning from the Labour Party in order to form a new party and claimed she will be joined by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
However, latest reports from Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund claim that "Corbyn was not ready" and he is "furious and bewildered at the way it has been launched without consultation."
The Coventry MP issued a statement revealing the news.
"Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party," she wrote.
"Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country."
She continued: “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper. Just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population. Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene 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 lift 400,000 children out of poverty. 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. Meanwhile, a billionaire-backed grifter is leading the polls, because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives. And across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.
“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it. We are not going to take this anymore.
“We’re not an island of strangers; we’re an island that’s suffering. We need homes and lives we can actually afford, not rip-off bills we pay every month to a tiny elite bathing in cash. We need our money spent on public services, not forever wars.
“In 2029, the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism.
“Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them. It’s time the rest of us had one.”
Sultana was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party shortly after the 2024 General Election, alongside Corbyn, former Labour chancellor John McDonnell and Richard Burgon. This was in response to their rebellion against the two-child benefit cap.
Sultana's suspension meant she sat in the House of Commons as an independent MP.
However, Sultana was still a member of the party up until very recently.
The 31-year-old's announcement comes after Corbyn hinted at offering “an alternative” to Labour before the next election.
Speaking to Robert Peston on ITV, the 76-year-old confirmed there had been discussions of a new party among his Independent Alliance group of MPs that was founded last year.
“That grouping [of independents] will come together, there will be an alternative,” he said.
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