The ‘nonce party.’ That’s how Zarah Sultana described the Labour party at a rally in Brixton last night where the independent MP for Coventry South addressed supporters of her new movement, Your Party. She claimed to have posted numerous images of Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein on her X account, but her warnings went unheeded by Labour strategists. The lively rally opened with a videotaped greeting from Jeremy Corbyn, co-leader alongside Sultana, who affirmed his support for ‘Net Zero by 2030’, and a handful of benefit increases. After this formality, his name was barely mentioned. Sultana topped the bill ahead of seven activists who urged the crowd to oppose ‘the far-right on the streets.’
Describing her fellow MPs as ‘dishonourable members’, Sultana outlined her path to power. ‘Kick out the Tories. Tell Reform to “fuck off”. And take on Labour, the genocide-enabling party which is now also the nonce party,’ she said. Having joined Labour at the age of 17, she felt aggrieved to have lost the whip ‘because I held the government to account over cuts to disability allowances and the [the banning of] Palestine Action.’ She accused her former party of ‘choosing arms dealers over disabled people.’ Labour’s electoral annihilation was certain, she said. ‘That party is dead and so it should be. But I am not in the mood for mourning.’
She turned her fire on the deputy leadership candidates, Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson, whom she couldn’t bring herself to name. She condemned the values they share. ‘Both have voted to keep the two-child benefit cap and to scrap the winter fuel allowance. And both are complicit in genocide in Gaza. I’m glad I have nothing to do with that.’ Her zeal for transforming Westminster sounded authentic. ‘Other parties manage their membership rather than serving them. We are here to change that.’ And she spoke of politics as if it were a zingy health supplement or a spiritual workout.
‘Politics should make you feel alive. It’s not just putting a cross in a box. It’s a habit. A muscle that gets stronger each time you use it.’
Sultana appealed to activists who find it ‘unacceptable to live on starvation wages in a mouldy flat,’ and she encouraged her supporters to ‘feel fucking furious when we look at the levels of poverty and the rich hording unimaginable wealth.’ Referring to her Reform opponents, she said, ‘fascism growls at the door.’
Sultana’s opposition to the government is well known, but she offered no new policies. At times she sounded worryingly like an estate agent flogging cheap prefabs with banal rhetoric. ‘This is about real power for ordinary people… Principled, democratic and dynamic… We will change things from the ground up… Unity of the party in policy, strategy and direction… Hope rooted in action and material gains.’ She repeatedly stressed her democratic principles. ‘This is your party. You are the decision-makers. One member, one vote.’
But who will decide on their name? ‘The Left party’ is her choice, as she pointed out, and she has a great opportunity to enact her democratic ideals by letting the supporters chose the name in a free ballot. But that wasn’t on the agenda. Her clearest policy concerned an independent Palestine. ‘It should be a secular state, democratic, with equal rights for everyone.’ Easy to say. Harder to realise.
At times she sounded worryingly like an estate agent flogging cheap prefabs
Sultana was preceded by Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the NEU teaching union. He lambasted Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech which he said was ‘paving the road for Nigel Farage into No. 10.’ He urged everyone to protest against Tommy Robinson at today’s rally in London. ‘If you’re not on the counter demonstration, please make sure you are,’ he said, confusingly.
Keir Starmer got a mauling from the former South African politician, Andrew Feinstein, who stood against him in Holborn and St Pancras in 2024. Feinstein came second to Starmer. He accused the Prime Minister of boosting defence spending in response to bribes from arms manufacturers. ‘A sum of £4.5 million,’ he suggested, had gone straight into Starmer’s pocket. As a result, the capital valuations of arms dealers are soaring on the stock market.
Feinstein stated that ‘the RAF has flown more spy flights over Gaza than the Israeli air force,’ and the data they gather has enabled the IDF to ‘target innocent Palestinians.’ He criticised Starmer for making the ‘best mate’ of Epstein ‘our most important diplomat in the world’, and finished with a dig at Starmer’s approval rating. ‘Only 8 per cent of the population believe he’s doing a good job. I didn’t realise how big his extended family was.’
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