Anti-establishment parties are famously prone to splits early on. But Jeremy Corbyn’s new germ of a party has surely set a record. Before it has even been formally constituted, supporters have turned on one of the MPs in the “independent alliance” that consists of Corbyn, former Labour MP Zarah Sultana and four “Gaza independents”.

In the old days, it would have been safe to assume that any new party of the Left supported single-sex spaces. But that was before women were relegated to second-class citizens. Hence the spectacle of a Corbyn ally and Muslim MP being attacked by supporters of “Your Party”, the current placeholder name of the Corbyn-Sultana project, for supporting women’s rights.

Adnan Hussain, the independent MP for Blackburn, was received rapturously when he appeared with Corbyn at a Your Party rally this weekend. But his post on X arguing that “women’s rights and safe spaces should not be encroached upon” has exposed a chasm in the new party. Some of the replies are too abusive to repeat, but it’s clear that Hussain has made the fatal mistake of offending trans activists. “Didn’t waste much time on regurgitating the transphobic talking points, did you?” asked one. Another addressed Sultana, pleading with her to “do something about this phobic loose cannon”.

This is where large sections of the Left are these days, unable to hear the word “women” without a furious response of “but trans people”. It doesn’t bode well for the presumptuously-named Your Party, where Corbyn and Sultana already appear to be at odds with each other. Her premature announcement of the new party evidently caught him by surprise, and she has since claimed he “capitulated” on the definition of antisemitism when he was Labour leader. A report on the party’s handling of antisemitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 took a very different view, identifying “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” during Corbyn’s leadership.

The situation for British Jews has become worse in the last couple of years, with a huge rise in antisemitism across the country. The conflict in Gaza has become a loyalty test on the Left, and lost Labour four seats at last year’s general election. But while the temptation for Your Party to embrace the “Gaza independents” is obvious, it’s an uneasy and perhaps unsustainable alliance.

Whether the trans issue will prove a dealbreaker has yet to be seen. But it’s ironic that the only people on the Left who are willing to defend women’s spaces are socially conservative and do so because of a religious skepticism of the LGBT movement. Secular Lefties, it seems, have lost the appetite for true feminism. Until now, they have looked the other way when it comes to their allies’ religious conservatism, especially if they are Muslim and support the Palestinian cause. But now hyper-liberal Corbynites must ask themselves a question: can they be in the same party as alleged transphobes who are ardently pro-Palestine?

A neat example of this meltdown was posted by the Stats for Lefties X account in response to Leeds Green councillor Mothin Ali defending Adnan. “Adnan is a blatant transphobe,” they wrote. “The fact that you’re defending him and comparing his critics to Farage is absolutely disgusting and makes me very glad I did not vote for you.” Trans-activist India Willoughby also chimed in, posting: “I honestly think [Zarah Sultana] (who I have faith in) and [Jeremy Corbyn] need to make a statement about [Adnan Hussain] and trans rights.” The post went on: “My community is living in very real fear at the moment. Terrifying. We are sick to the back teeth of hearing trans hate is a ‘point of view.'”

This public spat in the new party has highlighted one of the most corrosive political developments in recent years. It’s not so much single-issue politics as a refusal to allow people to dissent from a rigid party line. In an era of slogan-based politics, “trans women are women” has equal billing with “free Palestine”. But which will the Corbyn-Sultana crusade choose?

---

Joan Smith is a novelist and columnist. She was previously Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, and is on the advisory group for Sex Matters. Her book Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women was published in November 2024.

polblonde

---