An independent alliance MP involved in the steering of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party has announced he is leaving the project. Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain’s resignation comes after Novara Media asked him to comment on allegations that he had been saying behind closed doors that he doesn’t want to become a Your Party member.
In his resignation letter on 14 November, Hussain said he would be “stepping away from the steering group of Your Party”, citing a “toxic, exclusionary and deeply disheartening” environment and calling out how “particularly Muslim men” within the steering process have been treated with “dismissive attitudes” and “veiled prejudice”.
His letter also describes a “broader pattern of clique-like behavior and gatekeeping across sections of the movement” and a “culture surrounding the party… dominated by persistent infighting, factional competition and a struggle for power, position and influence rather than a shared commitment to the common good”.
A source close to the matter told Novara Media earlier today that Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley, were saying behind closed doors that they didn’t even want to join the nascent party because some of their base doesn’t want to be associated with the left.
Less than three hours after Novara Media reached out to Hussain to get his side of the story, the Blackburn MP announced he was quitting Your Party.
I didn’t say anything was going well either. They’re barely off the ground and the amount of articles slamming them is ridiculous. We live in a so called democracy, so let’s let a new democratic party form and vote if we believe in them and their plan. I’m bored of this soap opera style journalism.
No, to be fair to you you didn’t, you just implied it in a “Just Asking Questions” manner. When the actual people involved are semi-regularly making statements denouncing each other as they descend into another bout of factionalism and in-fighting before - by your own admission - they’re even an actual party I think most people would say that that looks like a rolling disaster, it’s the gift that keeps on giving for a media that is likely already sharpening its knives for them because they don’t even have to make anything up. By all means, be a fan of the party that doesn’t exist if you want, but if I were you I would Simply Avoid reading any stories about them because they will probably just make you sad and lead to more of this, a half-hearted attempt to leap to their defence.
I actually truly hope that Your Party works out, because it would be nice to feel like I have another option to vote for now that Labour seem to be sunk-costing their way to becoming Reform-Lite, but all the evidence so far from its shambolic announcement onwards suggests that this simply won’t be the hope I’m looking for. If they can go the rest of the year without another falling out I might feel the slightest optimism but past evidence would suggest that that won’t happen.
I agree it’s been more stumbling boulders than blocks so far, but I’m more optimistic. Even if it fails I think even just their effort can encourage more people that there can be another way, maybe the eventual answer will come from a different new party, cos like you say Labour is showing they aren’t the answer.
I rarely bother giving media any attention, let alone let it influence my opinion. What frustates me is when other people do.