Ex-U.K. Labor Party leader says he's starting a new left-wing party
The new formation has a website — yourparty.uk — but does not yet have a name.
'It's your party,' Corbyn said. 'We're going to decide (a name) when we've had all the responses, and so far the response rate has been massive.'
Corbyn said he hoped the new party would have its inaugural conference in the fall.
Corbyn, 76, led Labor to election defeats in 2017 and 2019, but the veteran socialist campaigner remains popular with many grassroots supporters. and the new party has the potential to further fragment British politics. The long-dominant Labor and Conservative parties now have challengers on both left and right, including the environmentalist Green Party and hard-right Reform UK.
Plans for a new party emerged earlier this month when lawmaker Zarah Sultana, who has been suspended from Labor for voting against the government, said she would 'co-lead the founding of a new party' with Corbyn.
At the time, Corbyn did not confirm the news.
On Thursday he denied the party launch had been messy, saying the process was 'democratic, it's grassroots and it's open.'
A longtime supporter of the Palestinians and critic of Israel, Corbyn was suspended from Labor in 2020 after Britain's equalities watchdog found anti-Jewish prejudice had been allowed to spread within Labor while he was leader.
He was suspended after failing to fully accept the findings¸ claiming opponents had exaggerated the scale of antisemitism in Labor for 'political reasons.'
Corbyn was reelected to Parliament last year as an independent.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn as Labor leader in 2020 and dragged the party back toward the political center ground. He dropped Corbyn's opposition to Britain's nuclear weapons, strongly backed sending weapons to Ukraine and stressed the party's commitment to balancing the books.
Starmer won a landslide election victory a year ago, but has struggled to maintain unity among Labor lawmakers as the government struggles to get a sluggish economy growing and invest in overstretched public services. He has been forced into a series of U-turns by his own lawmakers, including one on welfare reform that left his authority severely dented.
Lawless writes for the Associated Press.
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