Zarah Sultana calls in lawyers as row deepens with Jeremy Corbyn over new party

The Coventry South MP said she had been subjected to “baseless attacks on my character” which were “politically motivated”.

“I intend to hold to account those responsible for making them,” she said in a statement posted on social media shortly before midnight on Friday. “To that end, I have this evening instructed specialist defamation lawyers.”

The 31-year-old MP did not say who was responsible for the “number of false and defamatory statements” about her, but her statement also gave justifications for why she had launched a website for people to become members of Your Party – which Corbyn had described as “unauthorised”, telling people to cancel any direct debits they had set up.

Yesterday Corbyn said he was “appalled” by attacks on Karie Murphy, his former chief of staff as Labour leader, and said the process of founding the party had been “quite difficult over the last few days”. Sultana had said members would never accept Murphy having “sole financial control” of their money.

Sultana resigned her Labour party membership in July and said she was forming a leftwing party with Corbyn, the former Labour leader who was expelled from the party but was re-elected in 2024 as an independent.

It has not been a smooth ride. Corbyn was taken aback by her announcement, it is understood.

They eventually launched Your Party and she joined Corbyn and four other MPs in his Independent Alliance in the House of Commons.

But sources say Sultana ruffled feathers in the Corbyn camp during the summer when she criticised his actions as Labour leader, saying he had “capitulated” when he accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in 2018, the issue that fatally undermined his leadership.

Tensions erupted last Thursday, after Sultana launched the website yourparty-membership.uk, and emailed supporters telling them to sign up for £5 a month or £55 a year.

Three hours later, Jeremy Corbyn sent an “urgent message” to supporters describing it as an “unauthorised email” giving details of a “supposed membership portal” and adding that “legal advice is being taken”. Your Party issued a statement saying it had referred the matter to the information commissioner’s office.

Sultana responded to Corbyn’s message within minutes, saying she had been “frozen out” and subjected to “a sexist boys’ club”.

Corbyn allies rejected this claim, saying there were “many women” involved. “The sexism charge is identity politics nonsense,” one said.

The row has dismayed supporters. A few have turned to the Greens, who said that nearly 1,400 people had joined in the 24 hours since the row.

Yesterday 4,000 people had signed an open letter from a faction calling itself “Our Party”, which urged the six MPs to step aside from leadership roles to an “independent handover team”.

“It is clear there has been a breakdown of trust between leading figures, which risks the entire process disintegrating,” the letter says.

Photograph by Alamy/PA