MP Zarah Sultana has said that she is resigning from the Labour party to “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Jeremy Corbyn.
Sultana, who has sat in the Commons as an independent MP since she had the Labour whip withdrawn last year, represents the Coventry South constituency.
She said in a statement posted on X that she was “resigning from the Labour Party”.
“Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”
She said that “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper” and the “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”.
She added: “A year ago I was suspended by the Labour Party for voting to abolish the two-child benefit cap and lift 400,000 children out of poverty. I’d do it again. I voted against scrapping winter fuel payments for pensioners. I’d do it again. Now, the government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”
She urged people to “join us”.
Earlier on Thursday, Jeremy Corbyn had hinted he could launch a political party alongside other leftwing independent MPs in an attempt to offer “an alternative” to Labour, before the next general election.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston programme, the former Labour leader confirmed discussions were under way among the Independent Alliance group of MPs that he co-founded last year.
Asked directly whether they were preparing to form a new party, Corbyn did not rule it out. “That grouping [of independents] will come together, there will be an alternative,” he said.
The Independent Alliance includes four other independent MPs who all beat Labour candidates and MPs over the party’s position on Gaza. The group has the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist party, which each have five, and more than the Green party and Plaid Cymru on four.
Corbyn, who sits as an independent after he was suspended by Keir Starmer in 2020, has long hinted at plans to create a vehicle for socialist policies and pro-Palestinian campaigning. But until now he has not openly suggested a party launch before polling day.
The move could dismantle the left-of-centre vote and present a headache for Starmer, who has repositioned Labour in the political centre.
Corbyn’s group includes Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South; Ayoub Khan, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr; Adnan Hussain the MP for Blackburn, and Iqbal Mohamed, the MP for Dewsbury and Batley.
Corbyn said any new party would focus on poverty, inequality and a foreign policy “that’s based on peace rather than war”. Asked if he would lead the party, he added: “I’m here to work – I’m here to serve the people in the way I’ve always tried to do.”
“The Alliance group of MPs has worked very hard and very well together over the past year in parliament, and we’re coming up to our first anniversary,” Corbyn said.