After a rocky start, could Your Party be a new left-wing force in Scotland?

The creation of the new left-wing political project headed up by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has not gone to plan.

The party – now officially named Your Party following a vote at its founding conference in late November – has already been in the headlines for the wrong reasons: personality clashes, a funding row, and resignations.

Even its launch didn’t go off smoothly, with Sultana unilaterally announcing its creation in July after reportedly having grown frustrated with the slow speed at which progress was being made. Corbyn was dismayed by her jumping the gun and it took several weeks for the pair, apparently co-leaders of the new movement, to issue a joint statement. Their relationship has continued to be strained, to the point where the party has now voted against having leaders at all.

Yet none of this was enough to dissuade three Scottish Green councillors and five Scottish Green candidates jumping ship this autumn. Dan Hutchison, Seonad Hoy and Leòdhas Massie, all Glasgow councillors, became Your Party’s first elected representatives in Scotland and have now formed the Glasgow Socialist Group.

Confirming the move in a letter to his Govan constituents, Hutchison described it as “one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made” but said he had felt repeatedly let down by Green MSPs. “The party has changed dramatically, and I no longer see it as a political vehicle capable of achieving the socialist Scottish republic that I’ve always longed for,” he said.

No one from the left of the [Greens] felt there was enough to salvage

Hutchison was part of the so-called ‘Glasgow faction’ within the Greens which had become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the direction the party was taking. Dissatisfaction dates back to the signing of the Bute House Agreement (BHA) with the SNP in 2021, when activists were concerned about the concessions they’d have to make as part of that deal.

Those feelings only grew through the party’s tenure in government, ultimately coming to a head in late 2023 and early 2024 when, in short order, then first minister Humza Yousaf announced a council tax freeze without consulting his junior government partners, climate targets were rolled back, and referrals for puberty blockers were paused following the Cass Review. This forced the party leadership to back a membership-wide vote on the future of the BHA, ultimately pushing Yousaf to unilaterally end the partnership lest it look like a case of the tail wagging the dog.

But the ending of the agreement did little to resolve the acrimony, and the backing of the budget last year served to reinforce this. Hutchison, while acknowledging some “wins”, argued these were “at the cost of drastic cuts to local government budgets”.

The Holyrood candidate selection contest earlier this summer was the Glasgow faction’s last-ditch attempt to seize control of the Scottish Greens. Activists Ellie Gomersall and Iris Duane, as well as Hoy, ran together on a slate in an attempt to displace outgoing party leader Patrick Harvie from the top of the Glasgow list. While they failed in their ultimate objective, they were still placed second, fourth and fifth on the list, respectively, meaning Gomersall had a good chance of being elected to parliament next year.

Still, the faction felt defeated. Despite rumours, no one from the group threw their hat into the ring for the co-leadership race that took place later in the summer. Hutchison said it was this moment that helped crystallise his decision to leave. “No one from the left of the party felt there was enough to salvage,” he said.

It was during this same period that Your Party was launched. As well as the leadership duo of Corbyn and Sultana, the four other MPs in the Independent Alliance – Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed – were signed up. A number of councillors in England took the decision to join in the weeks that followed, some of them independents, others defecting from Labour. And high-profile former Labour politicians, including former MP Beth Winter and former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, were also involved.

Despite the momentum, the wheels fell off the project early. An apparent split between Sultana and the other MPs has led to statements and counter-statements being posted online. That was largely over a row about cash. The party was registered with the Electoral Commission in September with Corbyn as sole leader. It declared over £850,000 in assets – but that money apparently sat in a bank account of MOU Operations, which was signed over to Sultana in October after Driscoll, Winter and a third director, Andrew Feinstein, quit amid the row. It is understood the majority of that money has now been transferred to the party, though not before MPs Mohamed and Hussain backed out of the project, both blaming infighting and smears.

All of that happened before the party even had its founding conference, which itself was plagued by further infighting when Sultana refused to attend its first day over a decision not to admit those who were members of other parties. And while conference did begin to lay the groundwork for party structures, it did little to flesh out its policy offering beyond a vague commitment to “peace, equality, social justice, and international solidarity”.

So why did the Green councillors and  activists defect so early? The lack of policy and an ability to shape the agenda has been a draw for some, particularly on the question of Scottish independence. While neither Corbyn nor Sultana have expressly backed it, both saying that would be a decision for Scottish members, Gomersall has claimed “the simplest way for us to achieve independence is to elect a Westminster government that is pro-independence”.

I don’t think we’ll be walking away with swathes [of seats]... There is a world in which we win a couple

Forming a government from a standing start is a lofty aim, but it’s rooted in the idea many on the political left have that the electorate would get behind their platform if only they had the opportunity to do so. The target pool of voters is not those who already vote for other left-wing parties, but those who don’t vote at all.

An early test of that theory will come in May, when voters head to the polls in Scotland and Wales (and some English regions). Your Party is expected to stand candidates, but it has not yet made a decision on where or how many,  or even whether it will target list or constituency seats. It’s got a small window to get organised, not least because it will only hold its first Scottish conference in January.

How much of an appetite there is for Your Party in Scotland is difficult to ascertain as polling on voting intention has been limited. However, a recent YouGov survey asked Scots whether they would consider voting for “a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn”. Over half (54 per cent) said they would never consider it, while 15 per cent said they might. In the reality of an election campaign, far fewer are likely to end up backing the party and will instead vote for established parties that occupy a similar space, such as the SNP or Greens.

A UK-wide YouGov poll, conducted ahead of the Your Party conference, found the party fared even worse. Allan Faulds, the polling expert behind Ballot Box Scotland, says Your Party risks heading for electoral “oblivion” based on those numbers, even on the more generous proportional representation system in place in Scotland.

He says: “Recent GB-wide polling by YouGov showed that of the 12 per cent of voters who would even consider voting for Your Party, only four per cent said it was the only party they’d consider. In other words, a mere 0.5 per cent of voters overall have a truly firm intention to vote for them.”

Niall Christie, a former Scottish Green Westminster candidate who has moved to Your Party, accepts success in 2026 may be difficult. “Do I think Your Party will have any MSPs come May? Honestly, I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t think we’ll be walking away with swathes. I think there is a world in which we win a couple – a lot of things would have to go in our favour and we would need some amount of strategic decision-making in terms of resources to make that happen, but I don’t think that’s out of the question.”

 However, he says plenty of members are relaxed about the prospect of not winning seats. The focus now is less about the upcoming Scottish Parliament election and more about growing support at a local level, including getting involved in community campaigns. This will, Christie hopes, stand the party in good stead for the 2027 council elections and the next Westminster general election. That strategy is both based on reality, since there’s less than six months to go to the Holyrood election, and on ideology, as many leftists view electoral politics with suspicion.

And that is assuming the party makes it that far. While there is a sense of separation from the infighting south of the border (one insider describes the Scottish delegation’s approach to conference as “not my circus, not my monkeys”), inevitably the inauspicious beginnings will impact how voters in Scotland view it.

Even if the party manages to steady the ship internally, activists will likely find it is an uphill battle to convince the electorate they are a credible option.