EXCLUSIVE: Unite leadership not currently considering funding new Corbyn-Sultana Party
There have been no discussions about funding ‘Your Party’, Unite says
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At the Durham Miners’ Gala, Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham hinted at the prospect of Unite disaffiliating from Labour, sparking questions about whether the trade union might consider backing the new Corbyn-Sultana party.
A Unite spokesperson told Left Foot Forward that there have been “no discussions” with the temporarily-named Your Party about providing funding.
The spokesperson added: “Unite voted to continue affiliating with Labour two years ago and, under current policy, cannot fund another political party.”
Left Foot Forward understands that any decision on disaffiliation from Labour would not be made until Unite’s next rules conference in 2027.
In her speech, Graham hinted that Unite could “leave” or disaffiliate from Labour, and that the union will “forge a new vehicle for our class” and be “an authentic voice for the working class”.
Separately, sources linked to Jeremy Corbyn have told The Times that they are confident that Unite could be persuaded to disaffiliate from Labour and direct funds to candidates his new party runs.
A Unite spokesperson said: “As the general secretary said in her Times interview on 18 July with Patrick Maguire – people are always lobbying for Unite to affiliate to various parties.
“Unite is now focussed on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members, not party politics. We have no intention of getting involved in more Westminster melodrama.
“But that having been said. There can be no doubt that workers are feeling abandoned by Labour and the wrong choices it is making.”
They criticised the party’s lack of a jobs plan, and neglect of industries such as oil and gas, as well as its support for “fire and rehire” tactics in Birmingham, warning it is “inevitable that workers will vote for other parties if Labour does not deliver for them”.
Corbyn and Zarah Sultana have been contacted for comment.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
‘Even the spectre of Corbyn’s party could prove fatal for Starmer and Labour’
We still know very little about Jeremy Corbyn’s new party. Currently operating under the placeholder “Your Party”, its name, personnel and even its leader remain to be decided. Nebulous as this new political party remains, even the mere prospect of a resurgent British Corbynite Left is enough to cause Labour some serious headaches.
Labour has had a torrid first year in government. Keir Starmer’s personal ratings have plummeted, and the party is now averaging a paltry 22% in the polls. There have been several unforced errors, but fundamentally they are now experiencing the fallout from the widespread voter dissatisfaction and distrust that only 13 months helped deliver them a massive majority.
Currently, just two in five voters (39% according to Politico’s poll of polls) would vote for the two major parties. Both the Conservatives and Labour had a higher vote share in 2019 than the two parties combined today. In fact, Corbyn achieved 40% when he led Labour to a narrow defeat in the 2017 election (40%). This fragmentation will only increase with the introduction of Corbyn’s party.
‘Corbyn is a threat that Labour should take seriously’
Hypothetical polling (which is historically unreliable and should be handled with caution) from More In Common suggests that “Your Party” could immediately jump to 10% in the national opinion polls. Whilst new parties have historically struggled to get off the ground (for example the short-lived Change UK), Corbyn is a threat that the Labour Party should take seriously, not least because of just how unpopular Keir Starmer is with the public.
YouGov polling suggests that just under one in five of the electorate are open to voting for a new Corbyn-led party (although a large majority of these are open to others too), including almost a third Labour 2024 voters. Crucially, YouGov also has Jeremy Corbyn with a higher net favourability and a higher raw favourability than the current Prime Minister, and more than two-fifths (43%) of Labour 2024 voters have a positive view of the former leader.
Our polling suggests this could just be the start. In a head to head against Keir Starmer, Jeremy Corbyn performs strongly in key areas amongst the general public, Reform voters and Labour 2024 voters who gave Keir Starmer his majority. Just under two-fifths (39%) Labour 2024 voters say Jeremy Corbyn better fits the description “Understands People Like Me” and a third (34%) say Corbyn is better at “representing Labour voters”. In a straight choice between Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer more of the public opt for Corbyn on attributes such as “For working people”, “Represents Change”, and makes “Radical Decisions”.
May will provide sense of potential of ‘Your Party’
In fact, such is the dislike of current Reform voters towards Keir Starmer they prefer Corbyn to Starmer on all positive metrics apart from is “Good on the World Stage”. These include: “Understands People Like Me”, “Fun”, “Honest”, “Trustworthy” and “Principled”. Whilst this does not mean that Reform voters *like* Jeremy Corbyn, it underlines the strength of dislike felt towards the current Prime Minister, and ‘mainstream’ politics in general.
We are already seeing enthusiasm for Corbyn’s new party amongst the groups that you might expect. Four in ten younger voters are open to voting for ‘Your Party’, and he is the most popular politician amongst 16-17 year-olds (whom Labour have just given the vote). The potential support at the moment is stronger in London than in the Midlands, North and Rest of the South.
It is also thought the new party will include the four so-called “Gaza Independent” MPs, who will likely pose an even bigger challenge to Labour at the next election. There are 60 seats in the country where the number of votes won by ‘others’ (independents) was bigger than the majority, and most of these were on a Gaza ticket. We should be able to get a real sense of their potential to expand in May’s local elections in Birmingham and London.
‘Voters have been unsure what Starmer stands for’
However, it is not just amongst these demographics or in these urban areas that Labour should worry about Corbyn and whatever it is his new party turns out to be. Regardless of whether Corbyn’s party succeeds there will be a desire for voters to the left of Starmer’s Labour for more ‘authentic’ representation.
Keir Starmer’s recent U-turns on a range of issues including Welfare Reforms and his anti- immigration rhetoric “Island of Strangers” speech explains why attributes regarding authenticity, principles and honesty are some of Keir’s worst performing. Since he became leader Starmer’s floating principles have been a consistent line of attack, first by Boris Johnson and then Rishi Sunak. Turning against his own speech on immigration will only serve to alienate more voters as his principles and honesty come into even greater question. Voters have consistently been unsure of what Keir Starmer stands for, and that is only getting worse.
Just half of those who voted Labour in 2024 have a clear or broad idea of what Keir Starmer stands for, down from 75% prior to the election. His lack of principles make him the opposite of a conviction politician and it is no surprise his two greatest political threats, Farage and Corbyn, are politicians who have consistently drawn attention due to their radical, but seemingly authentic, views on immigration and/or austerity. Even the spectre of a Corbyn-party is enough to sharpen these attacks on Starmer, and could prove fatal for the embattled PM by the time of the next election.
Diane Abbott: She’s Walked the Line
By George Binette
In contrast to all too many members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), Diane Abbott has visited a fair few picket lines in her 38 years as the MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington. That might explain why several unions were keen to contribute to her re-election campaign last year after the Labour leadership finally re-admitted her to the PLP in late May 2024.
In total, Diane’s campaign received £9,000 from three Labour affiliates – the CWU, FBU and Unite – and £5,000 from what is arguably Britain’s most militant major union, the RMT, which found itself expelled from Labour more than two decades ago. There was never any real doubt that Diane would retain her seat last July, though her protracted suspension from the PLP and the party leadership’s support for Israel’s merciless war on Gaza did erode her previously thumping majority. The unions that contributed to her campaign did so in recognition of the role she had played both at Westminster and in showing solidarity publicly for workers fighting back.
During my six-and-a-half-year stint as her local party’s Trade Union Liaison Officer, I frequently called on Diane to send messages of support and visit picket lines. She invariably responded. In June and early July lecturers belonging to the NEU stood outside Hackney’s BSix college. Though Diane was ultimately unable to make a picketing session, her message of support received a warm welcome, not least because she had joined these NEU members when they had walked out in previous disputes, not least during her time as Shadow Home Secretary.
A week before the General Election, when many Labour candidates would have found alternative routes to avoid a picket line, the candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington joined Unite members battling for union recognition at the Sanctuary housing association, which now manages some 980 flats on the borough’s Kingsmead estate.
Within the hour, Diane was standing at the entrance to the nearby Homerton Hospital with BMA members striking as part of their long-running pay dispute with the then Tory government, where she also met with angry women, several of them UNISON members, working on an outsourced contract with the Danish-based multinational ISS. These workers, cleaners and catering staff, had worked throughout the Covid pandemic and yet had not received the so-called Covid bonus of at least £1,655 awarded to all directly employed NHS staff.
In June 2022 Diane addressed a lively RMT-organised rally at the start of the mini-strike wave that both reflected and accelerated the collapse in support for the Tory government. Less than a month later, she twice joined striking RMT members from London Underground on blazing hot mornings outside the Seven Sisters depot in neighbouring Haringey. They were defending their Transport for London pension scheme in an ultimately successful battle.
Before the year was out, she appeared next to CWU members at Stamford Hill’s Royal Mail delivery office in quite different weather conditions – one reason she received a rapturous reception from posties at a December 2022 strike benefit her CLP organised. Just under a year later she addressed a rally outside Amazon’s London headquarters midst frigid temperatures in solidarity with GMB members in Coventry striking in pursuit of union recognition.
In short, Diane Abbott has proved herself a consistent friend of workers in struggle over many years, which just might be another factor explaining why she is not welcome in Keir Starmer’s PLP.
- George Binette is a former secretary of Camden UNISON and the former Trade Union Liaison Officer for Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP between autumn 2017 and spring 2024.
- You can add your name to a petition in support of Diane Abbott here.
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