Sultana denies delaying the transfer of funds, and says they will be sent once Your Party’s governance structures have been reviewed
Zarah Sultana is being accused of delaying the transfer of £800,000 over to Your Party for politically motivated reasons.
According to Politics Home, Your Party sources have claimed that Sultana is withholding the funds until she gets access to documents relating to the governance of Your Party.
Sources close to Sultana have denied the allegations.
The rift in the party is between Sultana and the other five original members of the group of Independent Alliance MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Adnan Hussain, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Iqbal Mohamed.
After the Your Party membership portal was launched by Sultana on 18 September, membership funds were paid to MOU Operations.
MOU Operations was previously run by former Labour MP Beth Winter, former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll and anti-apartheid activist Andrew Feinstein, who ran as a candidate in Keir Starmer’s seat at the 2024 election.
Sultana took over as sole director of MOU Operations last week, giving her control of both the funds and the party’s membership data.
Before taking over as director of MOU, Sultana insisted the funds “will now be used for Your Party as was always intended”.
While these sources accuse Sultana of delaying the transfer, they could have taken over MOU themselves and transferred the funds to Your Party.
Winter, Driscoll and Feinstein said last week that Sultana was the only person in the leadership willing to take on MOU Operations.
Sultana has said the transfer will take place once she has carried out due diligence to ensure good governance of Your Party.
The dispute over access to funds and membership data is now creating yet more friction inside Your Party and making it harder to organise their founding conference, which is set to take place on 29–30 November.
On Monday, Your Party said 50,000 people have become members via the Corbyn-approved system. This figure does not automatically include the 20,000 members who signed up via Sultana’s portal.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn’t have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
