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The feud between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana over the future of a leftwing party to challenge Labour has taken another twist with the two camps arguing publicly over hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations.
Sultana offered to transfer £600,000 from a company the party’s founders set up earlier this year, only to be rebuffed by allies of Corbyn who accused her of playing “political games” with supporters’ money.
The latest row comes after months of acrimonious fighting between the two former Labour MPs who are jostling to be the figurehead of what they hope will be a new force on the populist left. The tussle for power is likely to come to a head in the new year when the party holds a formal leadership contest.
The latest row centres on hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of donations and fees received by MOU Operations Ltd, a company set up earlier this year while the details of Your Party were being thrashed out.
Your Party officials have been seeking a sum of about £800,000 from MOU Operations, even threatening to take legal action against the company over it.
Sultana however has recently taken sole control of MOU Operations and on Monday offered to return £600,000, arguing the rest should be retained in case of future legal or administrative expenses. That offer however was promptly rejected by Your Party officials.
A spokesperson for Sultana said: “Zarah is working to transfer all funds and data held by MOU Operations Ltd to Your Party. As sole director, she is legally responsible for ensuring the company’s costs, liabilities and expenses are settled, and this process may take some time.”
They added: “The first £200,000 is scheduled to be sent on 12 November. All remaining funds will be transferred once the company’s costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full.”
Your Party declined to comment, but officials are understood to be in the process of rejecting Sultana’s offer. A spokesperson for Corbyn also declined to comment.
The party officials argue that Sultana should repay the full £850,000, which they say was collected by MOU Operations in the early weeks of the party’s formation. But they do not want the party to take over a separate pot of money – believed to be about £500,000 – that was collected after Sultana launched an unauthorised membership portal on 18 September.
Some close to Corbyn believe Sultana is trying to keep money to help fight a leadership contest over the next few months. Sultana’s allies however say some money needs to be held back in case those who donated in the movement’s early days demand refunds.
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The row comes as Your Party advisers plan their first national conference in Liverpool at the end of the month, where members are due to approve a draft constitution and elect a 21-member executive.
Sultana’s allies say she wants to make sure some money is transferred to the party before that event in order to avoid having to scale it back because of a lack of funds.
The dispute between the two has been going on since Sultana announced in July she was resigning from Labour to set up Your Party alongside Corbyn.
That announcement was greeted with fury by Corbyn supporters, who said the former Labour leader was the only person with the national profile to be able to lead the new vehicle.
Sultana’s supporters however point to her following among young leftwingers and her success at getting her message across to an online audience. Her TikTok following, for example, is now nearly 490,000, in comparison with Corbyn’s 280,000.
