Jeremy Corbyn has just released an “urgent message” claiming today’s membership launch for ‘Your Party’ routed to an unauthorised domain and “legal advice” is now being taken. Which is odd, because Comrade Sultana told everyone to sign up using that very domain this morning…
“URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL YOURPARTY.UK SUPPORTERS
This morning, an unauthorised email was sent to all yourparty.uk supporters with details of a supposed membership portal hosted in a new domain name. Legal advice is being taken. That email should be ignored by all supporters. If any direct debits have been set up, they should be immediately cancelled.The agreed process was announced on 1 August: the Independent Alliance Group of MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, lqbal Mohamed, Adnan Hussain, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan – are stewarding and accountable for the foundation process for the new party, leading to an inaugural democratic conference in the Autumn.
Earlier this week, we shared new details about the roadmap to the launch, including our plans for mass regional assemblies and our founding conference. Soon, you will be able to turn your support into membership at yourparty.uk, and shape the future of our party and our country.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ayoub Khan MP, Adnan Hussain MP, lqbal Mohamed MP, Shockat Adam MP”
Zarah Sultana’s name is missing from this emergency announcement, and at the time of going to pixel, her tweets encouraging everyone to sign up using the supposedly unauthorised domain are still live. She also claimed “right-wing bad faith actors are desperate to claim this link is fake“. Now her co-leader is telling everyone to cancel their direct debits. (More) trouble in paradise?
UPDATE: Zarah Sultana says she has been subjected to a “sexist boys’ club” and launched the membership portal without dual authorisation. Guido has posted her full statement below. Looks like it’s not Your Party anymore, Zarah…
“I want to clarify the situation regarding the membership system for Your Party.
Neither of this week’s emails had the dual authorisation of both myself and Jeremy – which was the agreement made at the start of this process.
After being sidelined by the MPs named in today’s statement and effectively frozen out of the official accounts, I took the step of launching a membership portal so that supporters could continue to engage and organise. This was in line with the roadmap set out to members on Monday and is a safe, secure, legitimate portal for the party. Everyone who supports us should sign up now.
My sole motivation has been to safeguard the grassroots involvement that is essential to building this party. Unfortunately, I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys’ club: I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely. They have refused to allow any other women with voting rights on the Working Group, blocking the gender-balanced committee that both Jeremy and I signed up to.
It is also important to be transparent about why this situation has arisen. I do not believe members will accept Karie Murphy and her associates having sole financial control of members’ money and sole constitutional control over our conference. This undermines the democratic principles we agreed to uphold.
From the outset, we agreed that MOU Operations Ltd – stewarded by Jamie Driscroll, Beth Winter and Andrew Feinstein – would hold and manage funds on behalf of members until the founding conference, at which point they would be transferred to a new entity established democratically. Every penny raised so far has gone to MOU Operations, and this continues to be the case within our new membership portal. This, to be clear, is members’ money – and our members must decide how it is spent.
This arrangement was designed to ensure transparency, accountability and protection against the concentration of financial control in the hands of any one person.
I regret that today’s statement has misrepresented the situation. My actions have been consistent with our shared commitment: to build an open, democratic and member-led organisation. I will continue to fight for a process where members’ money, data and voices are safeguarded, not centralised under the control of one individual.
I am calling on Jeremy to meet with me and agree to make public all agreed structures, processes and decision-making protocols. Doing this will restore hope for our members, and ensure nothing like this can ever happen again. This party is more important than any one person, and we all owe it to the movement to deliver a truly democratic and socialist party.
The democratic founding conference of this party will take place in late November.
I will keep fighting for a minimum programme for maximum democracy, you have my word.No stitch-ups, no coronations: the members must decide.”