Jeremy Corbyn issued a call for unity as he opened the inaugural Your Party conference, acknowledging there had been “mistakes” in the party’s foundation.
Speaking at the start of a two-day conference in Liverpool, the former Labour leader said the nascent left-wing party had “a unique opportunity” to found “a socialist party of mass appeal” against a “triopoly of political thinking in Parliament”.
But the party’s foundation has been overshadowed by internal conflict with a dispute between former Labour MPs Mr Corbyn and Zarah Sultana earlier this year, resulting in a botched membership launch and threats of legal action.
Two other Independent MPs, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, withdrew from the party’s founding process, in part due to infighting.
And the conference has already seen disagreements over the expulsion of members who also held membership of the Socialist Workers Party.
On Saturday, Mr Corbyn suggested Your Party could write a handbook for the establishment of a political party, saying others could “learn from our problems, learn from our mistakes, learn from overreaching”.
He added that, despite hosting rival events on Friday night, both he and Ms Sultana had exchanged supportive messages to be read out at those meetings.
He said: “As a party, we’ve got to come together and be united, because division and disunity will not serve the interests of the people that we want to represent.”
In his speech, Mr Corbyn also called for “public, democratic ownership” of the water industry, led a chant of “free, free Palestine” and urged party members to “campaign forevermore for real socialism and real social justice”.
Following his speech, the conference moved on to discussion of whether the party should refer to itself as “socialist”, which was quickly interrupted by a heckler.
The weekend will also see members vote on a shortlist of potential names – Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance and For The Many – as well as a leadership model and whether the party should back “socialist” independent candidates at the May 2026 local elections.
Some 2,500 members have been selected to attend the event, out of a total membership that the party claims now numbers 50,000.
