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The first day of the inaugural conference for Jeremy Corbyn’s new left-wing party collapsed into chaos after his co-founder Zarah Sultana announced she was boycotting it.
Sultana was the first person to trumpet the arrival of Your Party in July, with a post on X widely believed to have caught Corbyn off guard.
But the creation of the new outfit – which is yet to gain an official name – was quickly overshadowed by a series of public spats between top figures.
Now, they have culminated in an ugly dispute on day one of the conference at the ACC in Liverpool over the blocking of members from a different socialist movement.
Word spread among attendees that Sultana would be appearing outside the centre at around 1pm to give a statement.
Wearing a long black jacket in the bitter cold, she told supporters: ‘It is something that is deeply concerning, especially when we are calling for a democratic party.
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‘We are not here to expel people. We are not here to build a culture of witch hunts, where people’s social media are stalked and people are putting resources into expelling people.’
Sultana has also clashed with her fellow MPs over the structure of the party leadership and her unilateral launch of a paid membership scheme.
In September, she accused Corbyn and the Independent Alliance MPs of being a ‘sexist boys’ club’.
Two of the members of the parliamentary group – Iqbal Mohamed and Adnan Hussain – stepped away from Your Party in the days ahead of the conference.
Among the items being debated by party members this weekend are an amendment on the party’s official name, with four options in consideration: Your Party, Our Party, For the Many, and Popular Alliance.
Even that discussion descended into angry recriminations on the conference stage, with an attendee accusing an ‘unelected clique’ of silencing certain name suggestions.
Over the course of the first day, speakers who have railed against figures at the top of the party have attracted loud support from the sizable crowd in the main hall.
Journalists were blocked from entering while debates were taking place, and a livestream regularly stopped functioning in the middle of some contributors’ speeches.
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