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Jeremy Corbyn has said “discussions are ongoing” after ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting the party to co-lead a new left-wing party with him.<\/p>\n
The ex-Labour leader congratulated Sultana on her “principled decision” to leave and said he was “delighted that she will help us build a real alternative”.<\/p>\n
He said “the democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape” but stopped short of providing details as to who would lead it. <\/p>\n
Talks have been going on under the radar for some time to turn the small group of independent pro-Gaza MPs, co-ordinated by Corbyn, into an actual political party which could stand candidates at next year’s local elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But the BBC has been told the question of leadership and the exact timing of the announcement had not been settled when Sultana made her declaration on Thursday evening. <\/p>\n
Some of those behind the project wanted a democratic conference to decide the leadership question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Some Labour MPs on the left of the party have praised Sultana but so far none has said they will be joining the new set up.<\/p>\n
Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Blyth, told the BBC’s World at One: “Perhaps she thinks she hasn’t left the Labour party, but the Labour party has left her.<\/p>\n
“People are really fed up of the two party system with regards to Labour and with regards to Conservatives.”<\/p>\n
“And I think that there is a huge appetite for a left wing alternative to the two mainstream parties.”<\/p>\n
Responding to Sultana’s decision, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the MP had “always taken a very different view” from the Labour government on a range of issues.<\/p>\n
Defending the government, she pointed to falling NHS waiting times, additional neighbourhood police officers and extending free school meals as examples of “real changes that have a real impact on people’s lives”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n