Jeremy Corbyn has said “discussions are ongoing” after Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the founding of a new party with him.
The former Labour Party leader congratulated Coventry South MP Ms Sultana on her “principled decision” to leave Sir Keir Starmer’s party and said that the “democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape”.
In a statement on X, Independent Islington North MP Mr Corbyn said: “Real change is coming.
“One year on from the election, this Labour Government has refused to deliver the change people expected and deserved. Poverty, inequality and war are not inevitable. Our country needs to change direction, now.
“Congratulations to Zarah Sultana on her principled decision to leave the Labour Party. I am delighted that she will help us build a real alternative.
“The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape. Discussions are ongoing – and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.
“Together, we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.”
Ms Sultana, who had the Labour whip suspended last year, said on Thursday night she was quitting Sir Keir’s party and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with the ex-Labour leader.
In a post on X on Thursday evening, Ms Sultana said the project would also involve “other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”.
She said that “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper” and the “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”.
The Coventry South MP also attacked the Government’s policies on welfare and Gaza.
Ms Sultana was one of seven MPs who had the Labour whip suspended last summer when they supported an amendment to the King’s Speech which related to the two-child benefit cap.
Four of the seven had the whip restored earlier this year but Ms Sultana was not among them.
Mr Corbyn led Labour from 2015 to April 2020, stepping down after the party’s loss at the 2019 general election.
He was suspended from Labour in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings that the party broke equality law when he was in charge, and said antisemitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
He was blocked from standing for Labour at last year’s general election and expelled in the spring of 2024 after announcing he would stand as an Independent candidate in his Islington North constituency, which he won with a majority of more than 7,000.
Last year, Mr Corbyn formed the Independent Alliance with other Independent members of the Commons.
