Your Party has established its foundations, with members voting on the party’s name, leadership structure, membership status and a party constitution at its inaugural conference in Liverpool. But by the end of the weekend cracks were already beginning to show.
00:00Your Party celebrated their inaugural conference this week in Liverpool, establishing foundational choices on how the party will be run.
00:07Over the weekend, members voted on the party's name, leadership structure, membership status and a party constitution.
00:13Politico said the group was established to present a full-blooded left-wing challenge to Labour, the party Corbyn once led.
00:18However, if the antics of the conference are anything to go by, it is mixing deep idealism with the kind of factional splits that would make Monty Python blush.
00:25So what happened at the launch? Members of Your Party confirmed its name will remain the same.
00:30Just over 37% voted to make the placeholder name permanent, beating other shortlisted options.
00:35Co-founder Zahra Sultana complained that her preferred option, Left Party, was not included.
00:40She also boycotted the first day of the conference in protest against members of the Socialist Workers Party being expelled from the event.
00:46The two co-founders have been at loggerheads since the party was first launched in July, but it hit new lows at the conference, said The Spectator.
00:53On the eve of the conference, Sultana and Corbyn held separate rallies.
00:57At Corbyn's rally, there were squabbles and four people were evicted, said Unherd.
01:01So who won in the battle between Corbyn and Sultana?
01:03Sultana undoubtedly came out the strongest of the pair, said the new statesman.
01:07She appears to have triumphed in every major debate.
01:10However, Green Party leaders at Polanski came out as the real winner.
01:13Your party is looking to challenge the popularity of the Greens who have experienced record increases in membership numbers earlier this year.
01:19But is this possible? Maybe not. According to the new statesman, it is Polanski, not Corbyn or Sultana, who is likely to dominate the British left for the near future.
01:28Your party had aimed to attract around 13,000 attendees to the events, said the BBC.
01:33This number was later revised down to around 2,500 people.
01:36So will your party's collective leadership model work?
01:39Sultana had previously championed the model, whereas Corbyn called for a party structure based on sole leadership.
01:44Collective leadership won by a narrow margin.
01:47So in February, members will vote for an executive committee of 11 elected members tasked with making decisions.
01:52This will include a chair, deputy chair and spokesperson to provide public political leadership.
01:57But MPs will be barred from taking up top roles on the central executive committee, which means that Corbyn cannot head the party.
02:03Members also voted heavily in favour of dual membership, where individuals can hold active membership of two different parties.
02:09But by establishing a collective leadership style and allowing members of rival parties to join,
02:14your party has paved the way for maximum inviting in the months and years ahead, said the Spectator.
02:19It's a combination that runs the risk of repelling enthused members who do not wish to partake in rancour and procriminations.
02:25For more news and analysis of UK politics and everything else, head over to theweek.com.
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