A second MP within a week has quit Your Party in acrimonious circumstances, throwing yet more doubt on the viability of the leftwing group co-led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
In a statement on X, Iqbal Mohamed, who was elected as the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley last year, said his decision to leave was after “many false allegations and smears” against him and others, which he did not explain.
Last Friday another independent MP involved in Your Party, Adnan Hussain, quit because of what he called “persistent infighting and a struggle for power” in the organisation.
In his statement, Mohamed said he wished the best for Your Party, but that “after careful consideration” he had decided to leave it and remain as an independent.
He wrote: “The many false allegations and smears made against me and others, and reported as fact without evidence, have been surprising and disappointing. However, I am confident that my colleagues and I have acted professionally, patiently, and in good faith throughout.”
Your Party has faced a series of splits and disagreements in its short history, mainly pitting Sultana, who was elected as a Labour MP but now sits as an independent, against Corbyn, the former Labour leader, and four other independents who were allied with the group.
Last week, Mohamed and Hussain, plus the two other independent MPs and Corbyn, signed a Your Party statement accusing Sultana of unnecessary delay in passing on £850,000 in donations, a move that infuriated Sultana.
Allies of Sultana accused other MPs in Your Party of trying to undermine her with the statement, saying the timing, just before Sultana appeared on BBC One’s Question Time, seemed intended to hamper her chances of winning a possible leadership contest against Corbyn.
In response, Your Party sources said Sultana was creating unnecessary barriers in arguing that there were legal reasons why she could not immediately transfer all the money. More of the money has since been transferred, and that row appears to have calmed.
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However, there are some new tensions before the inaugural Your Party conference, scheduled for the weekend after next in Liverpool and intended to formally choose leaders and set out its policy platform.
Some party figures associated with Corbyn have been annoyed by Sultana’s decision to hold her own pre-conference rally on the Friday night before the conference begins, billing it as a Your Party event when it is organised by her solely.
The row about the party funds originates from when a membership portal was launched, at which point Your Party had no formal structure or bank account.
The mass of membership levies and donations was thus directed to a newly formed company called MOU Operations Ltd, which now has Sultana as its sole director, with the idea that it would be passed on when Your Party was ready.
Your Party officials said they urgently needed the £850,000 to run the conference. Allies of Sultana insisted she was acting as fast as possible under the law.
