Corbyn and Sultana at odds over Your Party leadership as conference opens

The two most prominent figures in Your Party are still divided over how it should be run as its inaugural conference kicked off this weekend.

Jeremy Corbyn confirmed to journalists on Saturday that he preferred a single leader and is likely to stand for the role but Zarah Sultana, his co-founder, said she would vote for collective leadership and that she does not believe parties should be run by “sole personalities”.

The Guardian understands Sultana will run against Corbyn if members decide to elect one leader.

Delegates in Liverpool will choose between electing a single leader or a collective of lay members – those not already serving as MPs or councillors – to run the fledgling leftwing movement.

The party has been beset by infighting since plans for it were first announced in July after Sultana announced her defection from Labour, saying she and Corbyn would co-lead a new political organisation. Allies of Corbyn were quick to brief that a final decision had not been made.

The pair have struck a fragile peace, with Sultana likening their relationship to that of Noel and Liam Gallagher. Corbyn said on Saturday that he would “probably favour the single leadership model” but would “live with whatever [members] decide on”.

Asked by the Guardian if he would run, Corbyn said: “I’m very happy to serve the party in whatever capacity they decide they want me to serve.”

Sultana said she supported collective leadership in the absence of the option for two co-leaders. She said: “I’ve publicly supported a co-leadership model. The fact it hasn’t been given to members as an option to vote on is regrettable, and the fact that has been decided by a faceless, nameless bureaucrat is quite concerning.”

She said she was “championing collective leadership” because she felt it offered “maximum member democracy”.

“I don’t think movements should be led by sole personalities. I think you have to represent the broad mass movement,” she said. “That allows responsibility to be shared and more people’s ideas to be listened to. It strengthens the movement. With that, comes a structure which has a parliamentary convener. They are also elected by the membership.

“Should the members choose sole leadership, I would consider throwing my hat in the ring. I will then respect whatever the members decide and completely ride in behind that.”

Corbyn and Sultana said they would consider electoral pacts with other leftwing parties, including the Greens.

Sultana said: “I think we have to work with the Greens and other parties so we can stop Nigel Farage getting into Number 10. That has to be the guiding principle for all of us who want to stop fascism.”

Corbyn said it “would essentially be a decision for the local branches of Your Party” to judge what was best in their area, but he that he would not rule out cooperating with the Green party, which has enjoyed a rise in popularity under its new leader, Zack Polanski.

Tensions between Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is now an independent MP for Islington North, and Sultana, who represents Coventry South, escalated when Sultana launched a membership portal, collecting about £800,000 in donations and reams of members’ data.

Sultana said on Saturday that £600,000 had already been transferred from a holding company to Your Party and that the remainder of the money would be sent when liabilities had been processed.

She said she was now getting on “really well” with Corbyn and that the pair had been communicating about the conference, which she said they wanted to be “a positive, joyful experience where members feel empowered”.

She was absent, however, when he made his opening address to members on Saturday morning amid tensions with some of his allies. Relations between Corbyn’s former chief of staff, Karie Murphy, and Sultana are believed to be particularly strained.

Sultana admitted there was still a “toxic culture” in Your Party which has led to “bullying, intimidation and smears” and “acts of deliberate sabotage”.

She said: “I can definitely say that toxic culture I’ve experienced needs to be rooted out. I would say that is directly from the handbook of the Labour right. It’s shocking to experience in a new left wing, socialist party. We do need to dismantle that culture.

“I think there are people who are around Jeremy – not Jeremy himself – who have learned the wrong lessons from their time in the Labour party, where they have been on the wrong end of smears, of sabotage, attacks in the right wing press … they are now using the same tactics when really we should have a healthy climate of being able to debate and disagree.”

In his speech on Saturday, Corbyn called for unity. “As a party, we’ve got to come together and be united, because division and disunity will not serve the interests of the people that we want to represent,” he said.

He also called for “public, democratic ownership” of the water industry, led a chant of “free, free Palestine” and urged party members to “campaign forevermore for real socialism and real social justice”.