Sultana-backing Grassroots Left group calls for ‘no more witch-hunts’ in Your Party after Corbyn’s slate wins elections
Grassroots Left, the Your Party faction supporting Zara Sultana, has issued a statement following the leadership team elections won by the rival The Many slate, which backs Jeremy Corbyn. It says:
Our party is strongest when members have real power: over policy, finances, selections, and decision-making – through transparent, accountable structures. All Grassroots Left members will push for this on the CEC. We will push to make sure the branches are recognised immediately, fully supported and that members are put at the heart of the party.
Your Party must now work together to become a party of and for the whole left – with no more witch-hunts or stitch-ups. All those who have been expelled should be reinstated. We now need a culture of mutual respect, open debate, and a shared focus on the real issues facing us: inequality, insecure work, crumbling public services, fascism, and a political establishment that keeps letting working people down.
Grassroots Left will work with all those elected who are committed to rebuilding trust by putting the members first and fighting with the branches for accountable, transparent and democratic structures and strong socialist policies in Your Party.
Key events
Afternoon summary
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
These are from Sienna Rodgers from the House Magazine on the Your Party elections.
Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘The Many’ slate won 14 seats
Zarah Sultana’s Grassroots Left won 7 seats
Independents won 3 seats
25,347 Your Party members voted (over 1,000 more than in the 2025 Green party Leadership elections won by Zack Polanski)
YP source points out that 20 of the 24 seats on the CEC have been won by women, saying: “So much for the sexist boys’ club!”
Understand that now the leadership has been elected Corbyn will officially become a Your Party MP
He is currently listed as an Independent whereas Sultana became a YP MP months ago
Here is Alexandra Topping’s updated story on the results.
And here is an extract.
Sources close to [Zarah] Sultana said she had no intention of quitting the party despite Corbyn’s victory. “She will stay and fight,” they said. “She’ll be fighting with the other seven women that have been elected from Grassroots Left to make sure that the party is as democratic as it can be and to give as much power to the members as ‘The Many’ will allow.”
The 24-person CEC – on which 20 women will sit – will decide who takes the roles of chair, deputy chair, secretary, treasurer, political officer and spokesperson. After months of public spats, rows over money, accusations of sexism and rifts over policy and direction, Your Party is hoping to turn a page on the controversies that have beset it since its launch in July last year.
Following the result former Your Party MP Adnan Hussain said he was “delighted” at Corbyn’s victory, though he stopped short of saying he would rejoin the party. “‘The results clearly demonstrate members’ trust in his leadership and vision for the party, the same vision which inspired me to join the project,” he said. “I wish him the best of luck in putting into action his vision for a mass movement for the many.”
And Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has tweeted this, promoting his candidate in Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has been tweeting too about his party’s get out the vote operation in Gorton and Denton.
A reader asks:
Is there a convention by which constituencies containing more than one place are named?
Alphabetically it would be Denton and Gorton being fought today.
On the actual question, I can’t help, I’m afraid – although I guess it comes down to what sounds most natural to the people who live there. The Gorton bit of the constituency has more people living in it than the Denton bit.
But I do know something about the prevelance of constituency names with the word “and’” in them – because Philip Cowley has an essay on this subject in his wonderful collection of political columns, The Smallest Room in the House. He has looked at the data and, while in 1950 just 53 constituencies had “and” in the name, by 2019 it was 161, and now it is 250.
And this highlights two features of the way constituency boundaries have been redrawn in the past 80 years.
First, it is because “boundary redistributions in the UK have increasingly come to prioritise creating seats consisting of (roughly) equal electorates over the desire for seats that represent actual communities.”
And, second, it is because there is now more public particiation in the boundary redistribution process. At the last redistribution, the Boundary Commission originally proposed 209 seats with “and” in the title. By the time the consultation process was over, it was up to 250.
Here are some tweets from cabinet ministers campaigning in Gorton and Denton today.
From David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary
Proud to be out knocking doors today for Labour’s brilliant candidate, Angeliki Stogia.
Only Labour can stop Reform. If you’re in Gorton and Denton, vote for unity, hope and local renewal over division and hate 🌹 pic.twitter.com/XSlRLm4y5Z
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 26, 2026
From Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary
Out in Gorton and Denton today campaigning for our great candidate Angeliki Stogia.
It’s a straight choice — Labour or Reform, hope or fear.
Polls close 10 pm 🌹 pic.twitter.com/7ceTjVmxMd
— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) February 26, 2026
From Wes Streeting, the health secetary
From Anna Turley, the Labour chair
These are from Kate Ferguson, politcal editor of the Sun on Sunday.
Zack Polanski overheard speaking loudly on his phone on a train saying he is not confident The Greens will win in today’s byelection, source tells me.
To clarify: my mistake this was not on the phone.
My source says Zack was chatting with aides on the train.
Also for balance: Green Party denying this & say they will win.
Party source: “Zack is very confident we will win. “We are hearing v good reports from the doorstep.”
The latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features John Harris and Kiran Stacey talking about the Send reforms, and about possible changes to student loans.
Ministers welcome figures showing 16-point rise since election in proportion saying it’s easy to access GP in England
Ministers have welcomed figures showing a big increase in the proportion of people in England saying it is easy to access a GP.
According to figures in the latest health insight survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics, in January 77% of people described contact with their GP as easy.
The previous month the figure was 75%. And in July 2024 the figure was 61%.
Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, said:
We’re fixing the front door of the NHS – and the public is noticing …
This progress is the result of the extra investment and modernisation this government has introduced, cutting red tape so GPs spend more time caring for patients, investing £100m in expanding GP practices, and recruiting 2,000 more GPs.
Labour has been campaigning in Gorton and Denton again today with its Brexit “false promises” campaign bus. This is aimed at Reform UK and Nigel Farage. As explained yesterday, linking Farage with the £350m slogan is not particularly fair, but it is a significant departure for Labour, which until very recently has been wary of reopening the Brexit debate.
Jersey approves bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults
Jersey’s parliament has given final approval to a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults who live on the island, Harriet Sherwood reports.
Sultana urges Your Party members to ‘work together’, as she calls for ‘greater transparency and accountability’ in party
Zara Sultana has issued her own statement about the Your Party elections. She says it is now “time to work together”, but she also calls for “greater transparency and accountability” in the party.
Sultana-backing Grassroots Left group calls for ‘no more witch-hunts’ in Your Party after Corbyn’s slate wins elections
Grassroots Left, the Your Party faction supporting Zara Sultana, has issued a statement following the leadership team elections won by the rival The Many slate, which backs Jeremy Corbyn. It says:
Our party is strongest when members have real power: over policy, finances, selections, and decision-making – through transparent, accountable structures. All Grassroots Left members will push for this on the CEC. We will push to make sure the branches are recognised immediately, fully supported and that members are put at the heart of the party.
Your Party must now work together to become a party of and for the whole left – with no more witch-hunts or stitch-ups. All those who have been expelled should be reinstated. We now need a culture of mutual respect, open debate, and a shared focus on the real issues facing us: inequality, insecure work, crumbling public services, fascism, and a political establishment that keeps letting working people down.
Grassroots Left will work with all those elected who are committed to rebuilding trust by putting the members first and fighting with the branches for accountable, transparent and democratic structures and strong socialist policies in Your Party.
