Your Party members vote to make name permanent at tense first conference | Politics

The new left-wing party founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will be called Your Party following a vote by members, but its weekend conference revealed bitter divisions.

Just over 37 percent of members voted to make the name Your Party permanent, which was considered temporary when it was founded earlier this year. The other votes on the short list were For the Majority with 25.23%, People’s Alliance with 25.23% and Our Party with 14.19%.

Sultana, who is at loggerheads with Corbyn, reignited tensions on Sunday with a scathing attack on those “at the top” of the party after boycotting the first day of the conference to protest the expulsion of scores of Socialist Workers Party members.

Members and those online meeting in Liverpool narrowly voted 51.6% to 48.4% for the party to be led by a new member-led executive with a number of public roles. Corbyn, whose preferred model is a single leader, has warned that he believes it is “difficult for the public to grasp some things” when the party is led by a group of people rather than a single leader.

Before the conference closed with members singing the Italian anti-fascist folk song Bella ciao, Corbyn called for unity, saying he understood “all the frustrations” surrounding his establishment. In addition to muted applause, he pointedly thanked Karie Murphy, Labour’s former chief of staff during his leadership, who has become a bogeyman figure for some within your Party.

Members’ endorsement of a collective leadership model avoids a potentially explosive head-to-head contest between Corbyn and Sultana. However, the party leadership will review different options and rule out the emergence of a more traditional leadership structure before general elections in two years.

Sultana had previously praised members’ support for the collective leadership model, saying the new party had been fighting for “maximum member democracy” since its inception. But others in the party described this as disingenuous, saying his main demand from the beginning was “joint leadership” with Corbyn.

Speaking later on the main stage on Sunday, Sultana expressed regret for his part in what he described as “hiccups” regarding the formation of the party. The money, the name of the party and Sultana’s unilateral moves to announce the establishment of your Party divided the party and included two independent MPs who chose to leave.

However, he said the party had to “confront” Saturday’s events before moving forward, adding: “Expulsions, bans and censorship in the conference hall are unacceptable.

“This is undemocratic. It is an attack on the members and this movement. And these were decisions made by the top, not by you,” he said, drawing loud applause from some members while others remained seated.

Sultana’s opponents in the party, including Corbyn’s supporters, privately accused him of trying to undermine it by appealing to a naïve vision of what a socialist party should be.

They also accuse his faction of trying to freeze out socially conservative Muslims and paving the way for far-left groups to polarize and influence the new party’s direction.

While the discussions continued heatedly after Sultana’s speech, calls were made from the stage for the dismissal of the current leadership. Sultana also reiterated earlier calls for your Party to become an anti-Zionist party, saying “we must sever all ties with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel.”

Gains were also made on other positions advocated by Sultana and his faction in your Party, including the ability of members to hold dual memberships in other political groups. Members voted 69.2 percent to 30.8 percent to allow dual membership.

The second vote is significant given the internal squabbles in which he refused to enter the conference hall on Saturday in solidarity with delegates expelled for their links to other left-wing parties, which he described as a “witch hunt”.

Members of other parties will have the right to participate only after their party’s new leadership and conference have confirmed that they are compatible with the party’s values.

Corbyn said on Saturday that entry was granted on the condition that members were not aligned with other parties registered with the Electoral Commission. At the opening of the conference on Saturday, he acknowledged that there were “mistakes” in the founding of the party and called for unity.

The Islington North MP said the party had a “unique opportunity” to build a “socialist party with mass appeal” against the “triad of political thought in parliament”.

However, the party’s founding was overshadowed by infighting, leading to failed recruitment and threats of legal action. Two other independent MPs, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, withdrew from the party’s founding process, partly due to internal conflicts.

Those involved are also trying to seize the momentum behind the Green party under its new leader Zack Polanski, amid a struggle to claim the mantle of being the leading voice on Labour’s left.