21 Leyton and Wanstead Labour members have resigned, with the majority joining Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party, Your Party. It will be formally named at the founding conference this autumn.

Exodus of Labour members to Your Party

The mass resignation letter accused Keir Starmer’s leadership of having “abandoned” Labour’s principles when it comes to both at home and foreign policy. The group includes former Constituency Labour Party (CLP) chairs Ray Goodspeed and Lizzy Ali, as well as other senior CLP members.

It comes after eight former Labour councillors defected to Corbyn and Sultana’s party, including Jenny Manson the co-chair of Jewish Voice for Liberation (JVL).

Manson, who is Jewish, said Gaza was her key reason for leaving:

I feel I’m witnessing something like the Holocaust on my television. I was born in 1948, so I didn’t witness the Holocaust. And of course, I’m terribly conscious of it. But we are witnessing not only war crimes, but such cruel war crimes. I can’t conceive of this level of cruelty.

The Leyton and Wanstead Labour members echoed her sentiment, accusing the government of “shameful inaction and active complicity”. They continued:

The Labour government has limited itself to minimal, mainly symbolic actions, taken far too late, while continuing with weapon sales and military co-operation with the Israeli regime. This will be a permanent stain on its reputation.

Labour previously suspended around 8% of arms sales to Israel, leading many to say that they’ve therefore admitted that all arms sales to the state could be used in war crimes.

“Enough is enough”

In the letter, the Labour members write:

We have remained members of the Labour Party, despite being told to leave by Keir Starmer, and in spite of many good socialists being expelled or leaving in disgust. We have done this out of party loyalty; to ensure the removal of the Tory government; for the sake of unity with the main organisations of the Labour movement; and because no viable alternative presented itself.

But enough is enough. We now feel that we have no choice but to resign from the Labour Party and to help to build an alternative socialist party that we can be proud to be members of – one that can act in the interests of working class people and provide a real alternative to the ‘populist’ authoritarian far right.

Grace Lewis was the first sitting Labour councillor to defect to Corbyn and Sultana’s outfit. She said:

Rather than address the real crisis facing people in our city, they have chosen the side of the rich and powerful. They have joined Reform in targeting minorities, including migrants and trans people, all whilst being active participants in the genocide in Gaza

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

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