Four months is a long time in the history of the British left. When Your Party – now its official name – was launched at the end of July, 800,000 people registered their interest. That qualified as a political phenomenon, and spoke to an unprecedented opportunity for the left. Thanks to an economic model no longer able to offer a sustained rise in living standards or properly functioning public services, and a foreign policy defined by murderous calamities – culminating in Israel’s Gaza genocide – the radical left has its biggest ever receptive audience.
But by the time of its founding conference in Liverpool at the weekend, Your Party had offered a masterclass in how the left can never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Members repelled by a Labour devoid of answers to Britain’s multiple crises were ready to listen to a credible, inspiring alternative. Instead, they have been subjected to a bitter public schism between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, its two leading founders, as well as threats of legal action, public denunciations, unsavoury anonymous briefings to rightwing newspapers and an obsession with internal process. The politically disillusioned have accordingly transferred their attention to Zack Polanski’s Green party, which has clearly repositioned itself on the unapologetic left and been rewarded with a membership of 170,000 and some polling that is ahead of Labour.
