Your Party votes to be led by members rather than single MP - avoiding Corbyn-Sultana battle

Your Party will be led by its members rather than a single MP, avoiding a battle between its two co-founders, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

Members have voted for a collective leadership model rather than a single leadership model, by a margin of 51.6% to 48.4%.

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There was a big cheer as the result was announced to delegates gathered in Liverpool for the new movement's annual founding conference.

However, one ally of Mr Corbyn told Sky News: "People have voted against utilising the biggest asset the party had - Jeremy."

Your Party has been marred by factionalism between the two figureheads from the outset and had a single leadership model been picked, a big battle for the top job was expected.

But many members told Sky News at the conference that because of the squabbling, they want Your Party to be led by the people rather than "personality icons".

Collective leadership will see ordinary members who are not MPs elected to senior positions on a Central Executive Committee (CEC), which will decide on party strategy and organisation.

Three key leadership roles will be the chair, vice chair, and spokesperson, but there will be 16 lay members of the CEC overall, who will represent regions within England. At a later date, more members will be elected to represent Wales and Scotland.

And MPs will still have influence, as they will be able to sit in the public office holder section of the executive committee, as will local councillors.

There will be four public office holder positions, and the CEC has the power to instruct those politicians to vote in line with party policy.

This leadership model will be in place for at least a year, with a review to come in 2027.

A Your Party spokesperson said: "This vote shows that we really are doing politics differently: from the bottom-up, not the top-down.

"In Westminster, we have a professional political class increasingly disconnected from ordinary people, serving corporations and billionaires instead of the communities they are supposed to represent.

"With a truly member-led party, we will offer something different: democratic, grassroots, accountable."

Timeline for elections

The nominations will open in the new year, with final votes taking place at the end of February.

In the meantime, Your Party will be led by the independent alliance (IA) of MPs and a randomly selected group of members, who will facilitate candidate selections for the local elections in May.

The IA MPs involved in Your Party are Mr Corbyn, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan.

Ms Sultana was previously part of the group but left a WhatsApp communications channel in September after launching an unauthorised membership portal and claiming she had been sidelined by a "sexist boys club" - sparking a major row that the party has struggled to recover from.

A source close to her denied quitting the IA, which has been stewarding the founding process, and claimed she had been excluded. They insisted Ms Sultana would be part of the caretaker leadership.

Collective leadership is seen as a win for Ms Sultana's faction, as she had backed this over the single leadership model.

Many grassroots groups also supported this option as they feel that unelected officials close to Mr Corbyn from his time as Labour leader have had too much say in what is going on behind the scenes.

Infighting rumbles on

Your Party members have also voted to allow membership of other parties.

Current rules don't permit dual membership, but this sparked a backlash on the eve of conference as it emerged figures from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) had been expelled, while members of other left-wing groups were barred from entering the conference venue.

Ms Sultana branded this a "witch hunt" orchestrated by faceless bureaucrats close to Mr Corbyn, and refused to enter the conference hall yesterday in protest.

The vote on the leadership model and dual membership were ratified with a vote on the party's constitution and political statement this afternoon.

This vote sparked some commotion as it emerged one group - the Democratic Socialists - initially urged its hundreds of members to vote against these documents despite supporting both the outcomes.

Dem Soc said that although they have won victories, voting for the constitution would "validate" the "targeting of the organised left".

That led to Ms Sultana, who has long been supported by Dem Soc, to warn that "certain people are looking to undermine the democratic vote that took place over the last 24 hours".

Dem Soc later rescinded their advice, accusing the "Corbyn faction" of encouraging members to vote against the constitution and warning "the risk is now too great to prioritise principle and not pragmatism".

Mr Corbyn had favoured a single leadership model and many of his allies argued Your Party had the best chance of succeeding if led by him, given his experience as Labour leader.

His spokesperson said claims that his office were telling people to vote against the constitution are "completely false".

He has not commented on the collective leadership vote, which Ms Sultana said was "truly exciting...and radically democratic."

Your Party also voted on its official name, with members deciding to keep it as it is. The options on the shortlist included Our Party, Popular Alliance and For the Many - but Your Party won with 37% of the vote.

(c) Sky News 2025: Your Party votes to be led by members rather than single MP - avoiding Corbyn-Sultana battle