A new Ipsos in the UK poll reveals that the left-wing political party recently founded by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Zarah Sultana could capture a significant segment of the British electorate, particularly among younger voters and those who supported the Labour and Green parties in the 2024 General Election.
Overall, 20% of British adults say they would be ‘very’ or ‘fairly likely’ to consider voting for a new left-wing party. This figure, however, masks a sharp generational divide. A third (33%) of those aged 16-34 would consider voting for the new party, a figure that drops to 22% among 35-54s and just 9% among those aged 55 and over.
The potential for this new party to disrupt the existing political landscape is most evident in its appeal to voters of other left-leaning parties. One-third (33%) of those who voted Labour in 2024 and 43% of 2024 Green party voters would consider lending their vote to a Corbyn-Sultana-led party.
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Commenting on the findings, Keiran Pedley, Director of UK Politics at Ipsos said:
These figures show that a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has the potential to shake up British politics. A significant number of younger people are at least prepared to consider voting for it and a majority of those aged under 35 say they would consider voting for some kind of alliance between the new party and the Greens. Clear policies around change, the NHS, poverty and wealth taxes could be popular. Time will tell if the new party can turn this hypothetical appeal into real votes on a significant scale.
Former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn M.P. (left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
Corbyn and Sultana commit to launching new socialist party
JEREMY CORBYN and Zarah Sultana have reaffirmed their intention to launch a new political party of the socialist left to challenge a system rigged against working people.
The two former Labour MPs issued a joint statement today committing to the new party after three weeks of sometimes tense and challenging discussions since Ms Sultana quit the Labour Party.
They pledged the creation of “a new kind of political party — one that belongs to you” and looked ahead to a founding conference at which members would “decide the party’s direction, the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.”
The founding process will also determine the name of the new party. It is understood that the process will be overseen by a working group to be established by the Independent Alliance of MPs, of which Corbyn and Sultana are both members.
Polling shows that the party will pose a serious threat to Labour, with one survey putting the two neck-and-neck on 15 per cent.
In alliance with the Greens, currently in the midst of their own leadership contest, it could overhaul Labour as the main electoral expression of the left in British politics.
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“The system is rigged when the government says there is no money for the poor, but billions for war. We cannot accept these injustices, and neither should you.”
The statement continued: “We will only fix the crises in our society with a mass redistribution of wealth and power. That means taxing the very richest in our society.
“That means an NHS free from privatisation and bringing energy, water, rail and mail into public ownership,” it added, and “investing in a massive council-house building programme” — recalling some of the most popular policies of Labour under Corbyn.
The Corbyn-Sultana statement also takes aim at “the government’s complicity in crimes against humanity. Now, more than ever, we must defend the right to protest against genocide.
“That is why we will keep demanding an end to all arms sales to Israel and for the only path to peace — a free and independent Palestine.
“The great dividers want you to think that the problems in our society are caused by migrants or refugees. They’re not. They are caused by an economic system that protects the interests of corporations and billionaires.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer chases Nigel Farage’s racist bigot vote.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in Downing Street, London, on his first official visit to Britain, July 17, 2025
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Just 12 per cent of the public approve of the government’s record, a historic low. Current polling shows the great majority of Labour MPs losing their seats at the next election, either to Reform, or to the new left party struggling to be born, or in Scotland and Wales to nationalist parties.
Certainly, at present it is as easy to see the suspended four — and the already-whipless John McDonnell and Apsana Begum who rebelled a year ago against the two-child benefit cap — securing re-election as independents than as candidates of the Starmer regime.
It is certainly hard to see this move breaking resistance to the new austerity agenda going forward. Only successful leaders can hope to get away with this sort of crackdown.
So this latest exercise in authoritarianism speaks only to Starmer’s loss of capacity to advance his right-wing agenda, as well as to his consigliere Morgan McSweeney’s blinkered view that whatever the problem is the answer lies in attacking the left.
But it is also a challenge to the Labour left. Over the last five years it has consistently failed to find the means to arrest the Starmer-McSweeney purge of the left, often for want of the simple virtue of sticking together when under attack.
The response to the latest suspensions has been robust, in words at least. The left has shown it can inflict defeats on the government, reversing specific policy proposals.
But it is now beyond obvious that only a fighting plan to actually oust Starmer himself has any prospect of reversing Labour’s dismal prospects in time to save the next election. They should take every opportunity — and even create them — to express no-confidence in this government of austerity, war and authoritarianism.
Failure to do so will certainly turbocharge the case for the new socialist party being promoted by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. The appeal of that venture rests in part on the perception that Labour is a lost cause.
Starmer’s latest sanctions against dissent tend to make that case. He has flung down the gauntlet — the left in the PLP, the affiliated unions and the membership must pick it up.
Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so muchKeir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, July 16, 2025
… KEIR STARMER suspended four left Labour MPs from the party whip last night in a desperate attempt to restore his floundering and diminished authority.
Brian Leishman, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Rachael Maskell and Chris Hinchcliffe will now sit as independent MPs.
Left MP Zarah Sultana, commenting to the Star, told the MPs to “come and join us” in the new socialist party she has committed to launching with Jeremy Corbyn after resigning from Labour two weeks ago.
The MPs have been sanctioned by the Starmer regime because of alleged “persistent rebelliousness”. All voted against the government’s disability benefit cuts, along with a large number of other backbenchers.
More suspensions may follow as Sir Keir seeks to recover from a series of enforced U-turns as his “make the poor pay for war” political strategy unravels.
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Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
The suspended Labour MP’s historic resignation to found a working-class party has lit up social media with excitement as thousands knock at the door wanting involvement in the desperately needed project, writes ANDREW BURGIN
LAST THURSDAY, the suspended Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, took a historic political step. She resigned from Labour, the party that she joined as a young teenager; in doing so, she declared her intention to work with others to found a new working-class party — a new party of the left.
Many Labour MPs have resigned before when moving to the right, yet who now remembers Change UK or even the SDP? But in Labour’s entire history, no MP has taken the decisive step that Sultana has — leaving to help found a party of the left. But surely it’s no surprise: Sultana has already established her reputation as a class fighter and a leader both in Parliament and beyond. This is a courageous initiative that is to be celebrated.
By taking this bold and necessary step, she has not only opened up left politics, by encouraging tens of thousands of people to engage and join her on this political journey. She has also created a live debate over the nature of the party of the left, that so many have demanded for so long — and with increasing urgency over the last five years.
It is no surprise that the committee brought together by Jeremy Corbyn, uniting all those who have been working to create a new socialist party, voted overwhelmingly to ask Sultana and Corbyn to lead the initiative together.
This project stands on the inspiring legacy of Corbyn’s leadership of Labour from 2015 to 2020. Since then, there has been indecision on the left about whether and how to bring about a new party. Certainly, the first discussions that I was involved with, in the last days of 2019, came to nothing. And plans to fight back within the Labour Party likewise have led to little.
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When Sultana resigned, she was not acting as a lone individual. She had been in serious discussion in recent weeks with those planning for a new party of the left. She took the decision to resign after an agreement with those involved in this long-running process; hence the overwhelming support from its organising committee.
The meeting, which I attended, believed the party would work best with both Corbyn and Sultana at the helm. It did not take up a separate proposal for Corbyn to be sole leader.
Sultana’s resignation and her announcement of the new leadership were putting into practice that collective decision, which she had told the meeting she would do.
This is a very exciting — and urgently necessary — development, and we must welcome it. And we must also understand its political significance: that even the preparation for founding such a party creates a new political situation. Perhaps, of necessity, there has been a certain level of secrecy in the discussions up to this point.
Taking the decision to form such a party is not easy — there are many loyalties and political commitments, some over many decades. But the time for secrecy — and foot-dragging — is now past. Labour’s right-wing trajectory is now plain for all to see: in its support for the genocide in Gaza, its use of draconian legislation against the right to protest, its attack on disabled people, and much more.
We need to get organised now. We cannot afford to miss yet another boat.
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Contrary to some extremely disappointing and unprincipled briefing of the capitalist media by some involved, Sultana neither launched the new party nor sought to usurp the process. She did not “overplay her hand” nor “jump the gun to get the data and the donations.” Such statements are unworthy of anyone in our movement, and I, for one, do not believe that the anonymous briefers acted in Corbyn’s name.
What Sultana did was to give expression to a decision democratically arrived at by the organising committee, that she and Corbyn would together guide the process to its founding conference.
My hope is that now this has been agreed, and is out in the open, the organising committee will make its membership publicly known, open itself up and include others, to broaden and strengthen its work and increase the chances of initiating the party that is so desperately needed.
dizzy: Despite the corporate media all seem to be supporting climate-denying Neo-Fascist Farage there is plenty of time before the next election for that and other things related to him to change.
Former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn M.P. (left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
