'Anti-Zionist' Zarah Sultana lays out vision for new left-wing party

Middle East Eye

2 days ago

On 3 July Zarah Sultana sent shockwaves through Britain's political scene when the popular left-wing MP made the surprise announcement that she was leaving the Labour party to co-lead a new party with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
That new party doesn't even exist yet, but it has already scored above 10 percent in several public opinion polls and received more than 800,000 sign-ups.
The Labour leadership is right to be concerned. Coming as it does alongside the rise of the right-wing populist party Reform UK and the near-decimation of the Conservatives, the Corbyn-Sultana party could accelerate the destruction of the old two-party system.
But the new grouping has been largely shrouded in mystery. It is still not clear what it will look like, and it doesn't even have a name.
Now Sultana has given a series of unprecedented insights into her vision for the party.
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Significantly, she has gone to great lengths to distance it from Corbyn's leadership of Labour between 2015 and 2020.
On Sunday she declared "loudly and proudly" on social media that "I'm an anti-Zionist", a political stance that has long been beyond the pale in mainstream British political discourse.
This is something new. Clearly, the political landscape has changed quite dramatically from when Corbyn was leader of the opposition.
The smears won't work this time.
I say it loudly and proudly: I'm an anti-Zionist.
Print that. https://t.co/HSZAWnO4cJ — Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 17, 2025
Sultana has declared that she doesn't care about establishment "smears".
The crucial difference this time round, of course, is that while Corbyn's Labour aimed to enter government and win over most of the British public in the process, the new party is unlikely to harbour such ambitions.
This means it doesn't have to play by the rules that Corbyn's Labour did.
Even if it receives 15 percent of the vote, it could be an existential threat to the Starmer government by robbing it of a majority.
Most of the supporters the party will attract will be unmoved by negative mainstream media coverage or condemnation by Labour and Conservative politicians.
They're more likely to view the disapproval of the political class as a badge of honour.
Criticising Corbynism
In an interview with the New Left Review published over the weekend, Sultana said that "we have to build on the strengths of Corbynism - its energy, mass appeal and bold policy platform - and we also have to recognise its limitations".
She accused Corbynism of having "capitulated to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which famously equates it with anti-Zionism".
Sultana avoided criticising Corbyn personally but levelled serious criticism against the party under his leadership (while she was involved with the party during that time, she didn't become an MP until the December 2019 general election).
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She said she heard from friends who had been at the top of Labour that it was in parts "a highly dysfunctional working environment with toxicity and bullying - not from Jeremy, but from some people around him".
The criticism came thick and fast in the interview. Sultana added that Corbynism "didn't make a real effort to channel its mass membership into the labour movement or tenants unions, which would have enriched the party's social base".
She continued: "When it came under attack from the state and the media, it should have fought back, recognising that these are our class enemies. But instead it was frightened and far too conciliatory."
Corbyn, one of the most recognisable figures in Britain, has almost certainly been the biggest factor drawing people to the nascent party.
But Sultana is evidently firmly asserting herself and her own position.
"I'm always learning from Jeremy and I'd like to think there are insights I can offer him as well," she said, emphasising that a "co-leadership with equal powers would mean that neither of us is a tokenistic figure".
So how important will prominent personalities be to the new party's structure?
Sultana clarified that the process of establishing the party through a conference this autumn "can't be led by just MPs", pointing out that five of the six independent MPs are men.
'I'm always learning from Jeremy and I'd like to think there are insights I can offer him as well'
- Zarah Sultana MP
"This shouldn't be what our party looks like going forward," she told the New Left Review, adding that "the committee that's organising the conference should be gender balanced as well as racially and regionally diverse, all with an equal stake and voting rights".
And to hammer the point home: "Anything less would be a boys' club."
Significantly, Sultana has also put an end to rumours that the new party won't be a real party at all, but rather a sort of federation or movement.
"A lot of unofficial local groups have also been springing up since we announced the party, but we will be formalising our structures at the upcoming conference," she said.
"The overall party structure has to be unitary, otherwise it won't be a cohesive project that unites the existing spectrum of movements and struggles.
"A federation will not be as able to galvanise people or go on the offensive; it could end up being little more than a loose collection of different groups rather than a powerful, united bloc."
This is all quite emphatic: the new party aims to be powerful and united. It will be established through an "open and pluralistic conference" which will break the "conventions of British politics".
Moreover, it is clearly moored to a broader left-wing and anti-establishment vision for society.
"We don't just want electoralism - we want a project that's tied in to tenants unions, labour organising, the fight to defend the NHS from privatisation and the Palestine solidarity movement."
And the ultimate aim? "The goal is to change politics forever." No one can accuse the independents of aiming too low.