Ipsos Mori put out a poll yesterday, about which they noted:
One in five (20%) British adults would consider voting for a new left-wing party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. The party's appeal is strongest among young people, with one-third (33%) of 16-34s considering it, alongside a third of 2024 Labour voters (33%) and 43% of 2024 Green Party voters.
The data was as follows, assuming no alliance between a new party and the Greens:
This is the data if it was assumed there were to be an alliance between the Greens and this new party, making the chance of winning in first-past-the-post elections very much more likely:
Labour would be massively damaged, is the message.
The combined support might well challenge Farage.
Now, of course, this is an opinion poll. I know all the risks of extrapolation. But the message is clear: there is hunger for a left-wing alternative in our society that requires a response, and it is not going to get it from Labour at present.
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And this is the main thing to remember about letting greed rip into your society – that sooner or later it reveals itself, reveals what it is really about because as the middle class shrinks, more and more people are harmed by it even though they might believe in it themselves. Some of its victims will go toward the likes of Farage; others will note that it is just not fair or proper way to play the game having done nothing wrong.
That is why referees were invented – to referee the game and that really in my view is what good politics is about – refereeing the game of life between powerful and not so powerful people. Our current referees have been bought and corrupted and that needs to be unpicked, the sooner the better.
Going through the charts: NHS, Economy & inflation are +/- near the top for the supporters of most parties – with the Tories and Defor voters listing immigration as the No 1 – de-fang that and focus could be on the real stuff (NHS, economy & inflation).
Corbyn is an honourable man but – he has been monstered and for some voters is marmite. Time for new faces & new narratives – that resonate with the English (I am assuming that by 2029, it will be clear that Scotland is leaving and Wales is on the way to doing so).
“Corbyn is an honourable man but – he has been monstered and for some voters is marmite. Time for new faces & new narratives ”
I agree. He is a good campaigner but proved to not be a fighter as leader, much to the disappointment of many supporters like me.
Zarah Sultana punched out at an antisemitism slur this week, threatening legal action if the comment was not withdrawn. It disappeared right rapidly. She has potential.
Another name is the redoubtable Mick Lynch, if he could be persuaded. His media appearances showed he has the nous to push back against opposition and may have sufficient charisma to win over the sleeping majority.
Yes, Corby is an honourable man indeed but as you allude to, is damaged goods. Sultana would be a better leader for their new party.
I’ve lived in Wales for the past 25 years and I don’t think there’s a great appetite for independence. Plaid will hopefully win the Welsh Government election next year as they are polling well, but that is more of a backlash to the Labour Party who has pretty much been in power in Cardiff Bay since devolution and have achieved sweet FA. There is some support for independence in West and North West Wales, but the big population is in South East Wales where independence is not that popular at all. South Walians are essentially no different from the working class in England, but there is a massive frustration/disappointment with the Labour Party.
Worryingly, Reform is polling very well in Wales which again is a result of the Labour government being useless.
You’re right but Corbyn will likely be 80 at the next election and 85 at the end of the subsequent parliament, he’s extremely unlikely to be leading the party into the election, he’s more likely to be used as a kind of elderly grandfather-like totem, a bit like Tony Benn in his later years. That’s why Zarah Sultana is joint leader, she’s seen as the future, she actually seems to have quite strong following among younger voters in her own right. Apparently she’s the the most followed British politician on TikTok and also the most abused online.
“Sultana carries the twin distinction of being the most followed British politician on TikTok and also the most abused online….. Despite not holding any office beyond her role as an MP, which she has had since 2019, Ms Sultana was subject to the most abuse of any MP in 2023, 68 per cent more than the next.” – The Standard, July 2025
Which suggests she’s making a name with both supporters and opponents, she also won the ‘Young People’s MP of the Year’ award in 2021
While I accept that Corbyn should probably not lead the new party, do you think more than 800,000 people would have signed up if he were not a part of it?
There are many roles in a new party that Corbyn could accept: chairperson, advisor, etc.
He doesn’t have to be Party Leader to become Prime Minister.
Agree with most of the comments. Still leaves the open questions: how does the new party deal with:
a) “immigration” = like it or not Brits have been groomed to regard it as a problem and
b) concrete, deliverable policies explained in a way that resonates with the Uk population (& note – respondees to the poll were unconvinced that the new party’s policies were affordable = back to the gov as a household narrative).
The fear of migration has to be tackled head on. I am at this moment writing a column for the National newspaper on this issue, pointing out that without significant inward migration the future of Scotland is well and truly stuffed, as is that of the rest of the UK as well. A little dose of reality is required in this debate. Without new working people in this country, which we cannot now produce because they aren’t the people to produce them, our futures are very bleak indeed. That is the reality that we have to talk about.
Glad you are writing about this in the National.
Certainly my discussions with senior Scottish politicians indicates they understand the need for inwards migration….and many public statements have been made to this effect. I can certainly vouch for the people that I interact with who (in their various ways) are all trying to create jobs in Scotland that they positively embrace inward migration.
I am, however, dismayed that there continues to be this fascist, fear-politics narrative about immigration. The reason I am most dismayed is because it is like a magicians slight of hand that distracts us away from from what is actually most important to many in the UK: the NHS, addressing poverty (particularly child poverty), homelessness, education, well-being in its widest sense, an economy that functions to provide well-being for the many, etc. As you have previously illustrated it, Richard, a more caring society.
I think a more definitively left-leaning party would be good for the UK. Particularly, if they could bust the ‘household analogy’ myth and put a more caring society at the centre of what they stand for. In addition, they need to explicitly call-out and demonstrate the failings of Thatcher Milk Snatcher privatisation policies, the massive amount of (and over use of vested interest) ‘consultants’, fight against organisations like Palantir, demonstrate once and for all the failings of neoliberal economic policies, etc. I personally feel that if they are to be successful, they will need to act more like activists and generate support and commitment. Otherwise, we will simply have another political entity swaying to the baler of the the right wing press and fighting for a middle ground that seems to becoming more fascist day by day.
Thanks. I appreciated your thoughts.
I’m not sure whether any coalition party on the Left would gather enough votes to form a government. A majority of voters can’t work out that Reeves’s “black hole” is entirely in the opposite form to what she states. Rising unemployment means there’s a “black hole” in demand not in the government’s books. The counter to this can only be increased government spending. A majority of voters can’t even work out that the norm is for both households and businesses to seek to meet their demand needs by getting hold of money in the form of mortgages, bank loans, shares, corporate bonds, etc. In other words this is Keynes 101 but few get it! The country is in poor shape as far as understanding money mechanics which is why you’ve got so much gas-lighting on none economic and monetary issues and a voting churn from Conservative to Labour and Reform.
I live in hope. All of this can be explained if there is willing to do so.
It also suggests that a significant proportion of Green voters are only there due to a lack of a viable alternative, rather than endorsement of their policies. So it stands to reason that the Greens would also be hugely damaged by this, either with or without an agreement with that party.
However, these types of “would you consider voting for new party X?” questions tend to be rather misleading, since considering voting for a hypothetical party is far from actually voting for a real party. This has been evidenced in recent years by Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, which was much heralded, but never really got off the ground electorally and is now circling the drain.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/08/22/green-party-south-jesmond/
Alba perhaps isn’t the best example because it was very much the Salmond Party, and seen by many as a sour grapes party, and with him gone, it’s pretty much gone.
“Your Party” by making Sultana joint leader, whilst using Corbyn, has tried to avoid that trap and whilst Corbyn might have a ‘sour grapes’ effect, most people probably accept it’s in a very different political space to current Labour.
I would certainly agree that the polls should be taken with a pinch of salt, ‘mid-term’ polls especially are very different from putting an x in the box in a general election
Ipsos Mori refer to “British Adults” but I suspect that should be “English Adults” as they make no reference to those who voted Plaid or SNP in the 2024 Geral Election.
It would be interesting to conduct he following experiment:
Get a representative sample of London-based journalists, commentators and pollsters (adding other similarly valuable members of society if you like) to listen to two otherwise identical 3-minute recorded monologs with one including the word “English” the other substituting “British” for “English” and then ask them if there were any differences between the two monologs. I think it would be safe to wager that the number of falsely identified differences would exceed the number of recognitions that one monolog used “British” where the other used “English”
Is anyone else following Crispin Flintoff and his films going round all the start-ups of Your Party?
Last night it was Leeds and Croydon. Supposed to be an hour from 8 until 9, but went on until past 10pm. At Leeds there were 150 people in the room.
Someone from Croydon thought it should be called the Social Justice Party.
The problem at the moment is who has the right to hold our data.
There is a data base going to be based on present constituencies, 650 groups.
Sounds a reasonable way to go considering how many people have signed up to it, average over 1200 in each constituency. It needs to get moving so the impetus is not lost.
Starmer & co have crushed debate and have made it clear they do not want socialists in the party. There has to be a new party and Corbyn must lead it. He is a brand. I like the Greens but I can’t remember who the leader is. With a popular programme (higher taxes on the rich, water nationalisation etc) and a pact with the Greens it will do well. We need to shift the Overton window back to where it was in 2017
The Greens will likely have new leadership in a bit over a week.
Sultana’s robust approach to the AS slander is most heartening.
Any young female Muslim left wing MP will have experience of arrogant, misogynist, Islamophobic thuggery and contempt both within her own party, from many male MPs, and online.
She’s proved her resilience.
The issue will be local organisation, they need to move fast after the founding conference.
The opposition will be vicious but they have a good example from Zara Sultana on how to deal with it.
S/o mentioned Crispin Flintoff – today he reports that the Met successfully shut down TWO attempts by Defend our Juries to hold Zoom meetings about their next mass protest in London
Zoom caved in to the Met.
Enjoy the internet while you can because the state is trying to control it. Plan ahead for repressive censorship. Remember, large international corporates are not your friends. How much of your life (and digital discourse & commerce) is in the hands of MS, Zoom, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Hewlett-Packard, NVidia, VISA, Paypal, ebay, X, and others. Diversify, use Open Source, encrypt, avoid free email providers, find out about VPN, dont take your smartphone to demonstrations and protests. Prepare for the day when the police arrive at 4am to confiscate ALL your devices and stop you accessing your your Google docs and MSOffice 365.
S/o here.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/08/22/defend-our-juries-latest-protest/
Defend our Juries is quick to learn. The next demo in London is going to have 1000 participants, all of whom will have agreed not to give their details to police so will have to be taken to the nearest police station. That’s going to be fun for the Met.
Crispin Flintoff’s zoom calls on Sundays quite often go down, but he always seems to know someone who can fix it for him, or, as on one occasion, take over from him.
As Bob Crow once said, “If you fight you won’t always win. But if you don’t fight you will always lose.”
Good quote from Bob.
With Polanski getting a lot of interest and membership increasing the Poll makes fascinating reading. Some sort of alliance where parties stood where they had the best chances of success may be the recipe to stop Reform. Having seen the leadership Hustings at Glastonbury and the Green Gathering we are lucky to have such good candidates, Ellie Chowns MP and Adrian Ramsey MP both overturned huge Tory majorities and Zack Polanksi, Dept Leader, excellent communicator and networker, open to the new left party. Re Your Party – judging by the Statement on the sign up page, lots to agree with but the oncoming collapse of the climate fails to feature. I’ll be sticking with the Greens and open to working together.
Left, Right are easily manipulated; boh are on wheels. In Scotland it makes little difference. Let me illustrate. The Unionist Media (Herald, Scotsman, BBC etc),has been exploiting the SNP 2024 accounts; falling numbers (only 56,000 members), declining finances; all used to stigmatise the SNP.
All fair enough in a raucous democracy, like Britain. But to provide some context – a frame of reference; what is the membership numbers and finances of the Scottish Labour and Conservative Parties?
No idea. Oh, I searched, but neither Scottish Labour nor the Scottish Conservatives seem to provide accurate membership numbers, at all. In Unionism it is fair for the Unionist Parties to provide no information at all; presumably because these saintly Parties are to be trusted , because they alone are unimpeachable. All good, clean, decent, wholesome fun. By all means show me I am wrong.
There is one membership lead. The (British) Labour Party has lost 200,000 members since 2020. Has Labour has followed the same precedent? Who knows.
Moving on to the Scottish Labour and Scottish Conservative Financial Accounts. No luck there either. I can’t find the current Scottish Conservatives’ Published Accounts either. Have I missed them, or did they crawl under a rock? Scottish Labour Accounts? Not 2024, and I couldn’t find 2023, 2022, 2021.
A PDF copy (redacted) of the 2024 accounts popped up from nowhere, on a Google search. On membership, Scottish Labour received £92,000 of membership and affiliation fees; but before you start using an annual subscription cost to work out the underlying membership number; Note 3 to the Accounts points out that “affiliation” includes “contributions” from affiliated “organisations”; of course it does. As a steer on membership numbers the Accounts are meaningless. Meanwhile, Scottish Labour, 2020 had a loss for the year of £64k, and Net Assets of £12K. In short it is a twopence ha’penny operation; and it is hard to see how itcan function as a professional operation. It all depends what you mean by ‘mass’. Multiply the tiniest mass with a big figure (from somewhere else), and you can have a result on any scale you could imagine….… (think of E=mc²).
And all that nonsense, in short illustrates in pounds sterling the lack of substance in our twopence ha’penny Unionist political system in Scotland; run for people somewhere else.
Thanks, John. Very good. Have you written this up anywhere? I suspect the Natiomal would love it.
No, I haven’t. I carried out some searches, and reviewed the little I found in haste. It wasn’t difficult, except for the secrecy and opaque nature of political Parties that do know, and should do better. Nobody bothers to ask the basic questions for any issue, or do the basics; because Labour and Conservatives frankly don’t care (and don’t want to care*), and can only survive by playing the system against the Scottish public interest (ditto the Scottish media); and there is no money spent in Scotland in trivia like basic research on the subject journalists write about.
Incidentally, it was the 2020 Scottish Labour Accounts I found, not 2024; an indication of the haste involved.
If the National (or anyone) wants to use the information in my comment they are welcome; but they should do a basic repeat search for accounts membership, to check I haven’t missed something obvious. I doubt it – the only real work Labour and Conservative ever do in Scotland seems planned to make it as difficult as possible to find out anything about Scotland, its Government from Westminster, Scotland’s economy, or the internal working of the Labour and Conservative Parties.
Two Scottish Consertive MSPs have resigned recently; Jeremy Balfour and Jamie Greene. They are both what would have been called “Wets”; well not quite, but wettish. In their context, they care; after the leader, the journalist who should have stuck to crime reporting, but foolishly talked grandiosely claiming he would “wield a claymore” on public spending (improbably – few sensible in Scotland would put him in charge of a budget); Balfour gave this rebuttal this when he resigned: saying the Scottish Conservatives had no interest in reform, “”beyond blind slashing of budgets”, putting “those in most need at highest risk”. As for Labour; for those whom are not living fossils, outdated reactionaries, or from the remaining ill-informed, inarticulate machine politicians; they know what is wrong, but everything they do, think or relied on is buttered by Wetminster. Otherwise, they are toast.
All noted, John, and I might follow this up.