I had high hopes for Your Party – but I’ve already given up

The public in-fighting we have seen this week from Your Party has changed my mind about them entirely.

Let me explain.

Those who had signed up for updates from the new left-wing movement  – like I did as soon as it launched – received an email this week prompting them to become paying members. Shortly after, we received another email – this time signed by Jeremy Corbyn, among others – warning us not to follow those instructions and that legal advice was being taken.

Like many, I assumed that Your Party had been targeted by hackers and I was relieved that I hadn’t handed my own payment details over. I never imagined that this back-and-forth would actually be the result of public bickering. 

As a result, I don’t think I can vote for this new political party, as it currently stands. And it’s a far cry from how energised I felt about it earlier this year.

Like three-quarters of a million others this summer, I signed up to join Your Party. As a former Labour voter who has become disillusioned by a party that is now arguably indistinguishable from the Tories, I was excited by the prospect of a left-wing alliance that would put my values at the forefront of its politics.

It seemed like the perfect time. Now more than ever, we need a party to challenge the status quo and look after workers, minorities, and public services, rather than simply coddling the rich and scapegoating migrants. 

Plus, as a longtime fan of both Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, I have to admit I bought into the dream a little. 

The idea of them co-running a party felt like a new dawn in politics, where the sort of voices who are usually cast to the fringe could actually instigate real change in a country that desperately needs it.

The inclusion of independent MPs whose constituents elected them on a pro-Gaza mandate only deepened my hope that we could have a proper political force in this country that is genuinely pro-Palestine.

But the in-fighting that has spilled into the open this week has been a shambles.

On the one hand, this entire debacle is deeply embarrassing for anyone who believed in this endeavour. It reeks of petty student politics to be debating and name-calling on social media for the entire nation to see. 

It diminishes public trust in Your Party as a serious political entity and ultimately paints seasoned politicians like Corbyn and Sultana as unprofessional and unreliable in the eyes of people like me who believed in the cause. 

When the left is presented as a rabble of squabbling, immature activists rather than genuine representatives of the people it pushes people away from our important causes – cementing the belief that real, grown-up politics is only found in the centre-right.

But more than that, this in-fighting is actively dangerous and irresponsible at a time like this.

We have nationalism dominating the streets in the form of far-right riots and flags at every turn. Anti-migrant rhetoric is no longer considered extreme – it is the bedrock of mainstream politics. 

The nation has just seen its second summer engulfed by far-right violence and disorder. 

Anyone who is visibly other, like me, feels less safe than ever. Our homes, schools, businesses, and places of worship feel like targets in a climate where anything that appears foreign is unwelcome.

Now, more than ever, we need a unified, legitimate and highly effective political force to counter the far-right. 

Those of us who are vilified and maligned by those with the largest political platform need to find solace and recognition elsewhere – and I thought Your Party was going to offer us that. 

Bickering and chaos is only going to do one thing – bolster the far-right, who rally around a single agenda of nationalism. All while those on the other end of the political spectrum argue about semantics and technicalities.

Reports suggest Your Party has been blighted by some genuine issues – from Sultana’s accusation of some operating as a ‘sexist boys’ club’ to the debate around whether only pro-LGBTQ+ views should be allowed in the ranks.

But whatever the disagreements, there are pressing issues of safety and security for those of us who bear the brunt of the far-right’s resurgence.

The asylum hotel protests and the violence and disorder that followed them have made many of us fear leaving our houses. The flag campaign has made people like me uncertain of our place in the country we call home.

On top of that, turning on the TV and radio to hear our politicians perpetuate anti-migrant rhetoric on a daily basis is dehumanising and exhausting. 

I will probably vote Green in the next election, as, under new leader Zack Polanski, they feel like the only remaining viable left-wing voice in our political system. But a part of me has lost all faith in electoral politics altogether. 

If the likes of Corbyn and Sultana – justice-driven campaigners for important causes that I care about – can be driven to scrapping on social media like schoolchildren, then what does that say about the system that made them?

Sadly for me, Your Party has proven itself to be anything but.

It seems more about egos and loyalties than it is about genuine representation – let alone the political revolution I thought it would be.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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