Jeremy Corbyn has addressed a meeting for a new leftwing political party named Collective attended by the former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and a number of former independent candidates.
Key figures in the group said they hoped the party would act as an incubator for future leaders who could replace Corbyn as a figurehead of the left, and aim to contest seats at the next general election.
At the private meeting on Sunday, where Corbyn gave the opening speech, founders said they would begin drawing up democratic structures for a new party to launch.
A source close to Corbyn said his attendance was not an official endorsement and that he had attended the meeting to “listen to and share a variety of views about the way forward for the left”.
Organisers said they hoped that forming a new party would be a way of garnering new support. “There will be a new left party that will contest the next election and hopefully be a meaningful counterweight to Reform and the rightwing drift of the Labour party,” one said.
Others who attended the meeting on Sunday included the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, the film director Ken Loach, Andrew Feinstein, the anti-apartheid activist who stood against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, and Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy. Representatives also attended from We Deserve Better and a range of independent local groups and smaller leftwing parties.
It is understood not all attenders are in favour of a new leftwing party, including Feinstein and Driscoll. It also may not ultimately involve the four independent candidates who won seats at the last general election on a pro-Palestinian platform and who have subsequently formed a parliamentary alliance with Corbyn.
Pamela Fitzpatrick, the director of Corbyn’s Peace and Justice project, who will be the movement’s director, said “now is the time” to become an established party.
“We have seen the rise of the far right and already people are feeling politically homeless because they were so desperate for change but support for Labour is dropping so quickly. We need a real movement that can fill that gap,” she said.
The movement, which formed earlier this year, shared a strategy briefing with attenders on Sunday, which suggested there should be a mass membership drive and an attempt to get trade unions to affiliate.
“Lots of people have been involved in independent campaigns in the last election that did surprisingly well, even if they didn’t win. This was the beginning of a potential mass movement of the working class outside of the Labour party,” one source involved said.
Those involved in Sunday’s meeting included independent candidates whom organisers consider the future of the movement, including Fiona Lali, who stood as the Revolutionary Communist candidate in Stratford and Bow, and Sean Halsall, an independent candidate in Southport.
Senior figures involved in the group said the time was right to begin planning for a new political party now that it was clear Corbyn and many of his supporters had no future in the Labour party.
“I think that there’s a real sense within the movement that there is an opportunity, but also a challenge for the left to move beyond Jeremy,” one said. “I think that there is a real concern that if we, if the left, doesn’t do this now, and if we don’t act now, then the Starmer government is just going to open the door to Farage as the next prime minister.”
Organisers believe the moment is right to launch the new party as Starmer’s Labour party faces a tough winter, including significant criticism of decisions to cut the winter fuel allowances for all but the poorest pensioners and stall NHS and infrastructure projects. A further meeting is planned in six weeks.
A number of disaffected leftwing activists and voters have turned to the Green party in recent years but organisers hoping to set up the new party said they believed it would have a separate tradition – though it could be a “meaningful electoral bloc”.
Corbyn announced last week that he would be forming a parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who had campaigned on a pro-Gaza platform, though the group has also raised issues of poverty and the two-child benefit cap.
There are no plans yet to involve those MPs in the formation of the new party. “It’s not obviously clear that they share a kind of broad-based political project,” one source said.
Scepticism about the launch of a new party comes in part because of the very limited success of other similar leftwing parties, including Left Unity, which was launched by Loach in 2013.
The former Labour MP George Galloway launched his Respect party in the aftermath of the Iraq war and contested recent elections under the Workers party GB banner, briefly winning a seat at the Rochdale byelection, which he lost at the general election.
Fitzpatrick, who was previously a Labour councillor and has stood as an independent, said the movement would take time to launch as a political party. “We don’t want to make the same mistakes as the past,” she said.
Corbyn wrote in a piece for the Guardian earlier this year that he intended to back a grassroots movement “capable of challenging the stale two-party system” and said it would “eventually run in elections”. However, he said in the piece that “to create a new, centralised party, based around the personality of one person, is to put the cart before the horse.”
BeardMonk1 on
Well I always said that the JC/Momentum/Comrade Brigade should sod off and form their own one based on their own policies and principles and test it with the electorate at the ballot box rather than dragging down the Labour party.
And they may well be doing that so we will see….
TarrouTheSaint on
I was very supportive of Corbyn’s domestic policy, but dismayed at almost every other aspect of his leadership of Labour. So, as much as I’d love there to be a viable left wing alternative, I just don’t think he’s the guy to lead it.
CheesyLala on
I’d give it a month before it collapses in factionalism, purity tests, accusations and recriminations.
AlpineJ0e on
Was this name chosen as part of an opening task for The Apprentice?
Inebriated-Penguin on
Yeah naming yourselves after the borg doesn’t seem like the best idea.
Minimum-Geologist-58 on
“The collective” conjuring up both images of both yoghurt and an obsessive unified hive mind seems ideal for a Corbyn led party, he should get on board!
RedBerryyy on
Preparing for the worst possible foreign policy positions.
Iamokoono on
Just call it what it is Jeremy… the JCCP.
Even better just move to Venezuela you’ll be welcomed there.
Longjumping_Stand889 on
The story contradicts the headline in para 4.
The names a bit naff too.
steepleton on
They get cows to swallow a magnet so it collects any bits of old metal rubbish they eat.
Like that, but a political party
boringfantasy on
Tories will win next election then, won’t they? Oh dear.
Wil420b on
>Others who attended the meeting on Sunday included ….. Lutfur Rahman
The most corrupt politician in Britain who still has his post.
Uncle___Marty on
Thank god he didn’t name it like a london gang would name themselves.
Oh wait.
Glum-Manner-9972 on
This is going to start looking like italy with parties, counter parties, sub parties, but ultimately No1 retains control…
_Spiggles_ on
Should have saved everyone time and named it “irrelevant”.
Socialistinoneroom on
A source close to Corbyn said his attendance was not an official endorsement and that he had attended the meeting to “listen to and share a variety of views about the way forward for the left”.
Dude4001 on
My favourite thing about the left is how much it hates other leftists. If the vote splits, I ticks, that’s my motto round election time.
Dhaughton99 on
Something tells me Jeremy never took clothing cash for his corduroys.
Dry_Sandwich_860 on
He simply does not have the necessary skills to run a modern party. He’s a typical Boomer: thinks he knows it all, won’t listen to anyone who does know anything useful, and knows so little that he doesn’t understand the concept of planning and can’t distinguish between ridiculous plans and ones that make sense.
He also absented the party for years to focus on in-fighting.
All this will do is siphon off votes from other clueless Labour Boomers and hand the Tories the next election. The best thing Keir Starmer did for the party was to jettison the clueless, squabbling Boomers but of course they’re too arrogant to stay gone.
MyInkyFingers on
Love him or hate him, I can see the point. Labour isn’t a left wing party anymore , it’s just right of centre .
Icy-Macaroon1070 on
I would advise the new name: Socialist Party. (+/- united)
Justice4Shamima on
**Jeremy Corbyn Releases Controversial Statement Claiming Sauron Was the “Real Hero” of Lord of the Rings, Sparks Outrage**
LONDON — In an unprecedented and frankly confusing turn of events, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has found himself at the center of yet another controversy after releasing a statement Thursday evening claiming that Sauron, the Dark Lord from J.R.R. Tolkien’s *The Lord of the Rings*, was “actually the good guy all along.”
Corbyn, who is no stranger to controversial opinions, reportedly made the statement after binge-watching Peter Jackson’s *Lord of the Rings* trilogy for the first time during a quiet evening at home. In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), the left-wing stalwart declared: “Having carefully watched *Lord of the Rings*, it’s become clear to me that Sauron was unfairly maligned. He simply wanted to unite Middle-earth and provide structure, order, and good jobs for all the orcs, goblins, and men who were tired of being exploited by an elitist wizard class.”
The reaction was swift and furious, with even longtime supporters finding themselves bewildered. “I agree with Jeremy on a lot of things, but this… this is just mad,” said lifelong Labour voter Gillian Harper. “Sauron was trying to enslave all of Middle-earth. Did he *not* see the part with the eye thing?”
Corbyn’s statement continued: “The so-called ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ was little more than a ragtag band of bourgeois saboteurs, hell-bent on preserving their outdated monarchies and landowner privileges. And let’s not forget, it was the elves—who live forever in gated communities—who pushed the war agenda. Sauron simply sought to redistribute power.”
Corbyn’s take on the famously evil overlord has drawn condemnation from all political quarters. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued a swift rebuttal. “It’s frankly shocking that anyone, let alone a former party leader, would sympathize with a literal embodiment of evil. Sauron is not some misunderstood politician—he’s an existential threat to the free peoples of Middle-earth.”
Corbyn doubled down in a follow-up interview on *Good Morning Britain*, calling the One Ring a “symbol of centralized authority” that could be “used for the benefit of all” if it weren’t for the selfishness of the so-called “heroes.” “Why should one small, insular group have the right to decide who gets the Ring? Why can’t Mordor be given a chance to show it can govern responsibly under Sauron’s leadership? It’s classic anti-Mordor propaganda.”
Many on social media have pointed out that Corbyn’s interpretation ignores the massive death tolls inflicted by Sauron’s armies, his enslavement of countless species, and the whole “endless darkness and despair” bit. Others, however, have been more receptive to Corbyn’s nuanced take. “It’s refreshing to see someone challenge the mainstream narrative about Sauron,” tweeted one self-described Corbynista. “Just because Mordor was militarized doesn’t mean they didn’t have legitimate grievances.”
Middle-Earth Studies professors were quick to distance themselves from Corbyn’s remarks. “While Tolkien’s work has always invited political interpretation, suggesting that Sauron was a misunderstood leader looking to redistribute power is a gross misreading,” said Dr. Emily Hartford, an expert in Tolkien literature. “He was literally a giant flaming eye seeking to dominate all life. That’s not usually considered a progressive platform.”
Despite the outcry, Corbyn shows no signs of walking back his statement. “It’s time we reconsider the ‘evil overlord’ narrative and ask who benefits from it,” Corbyn said defiantly in a Facebook post this morning. “Sauron was fighting for Mordor’s working class, while Frodo and Gandalf were mere pawns of the entrenched oligarchy. This isn’t fiction—this is class warfare.”
At press time, Corbyn was reportedly planning a viewing of *Star Wars*, where he is expected to announce that the Galactic Empire “had some valid points.”
fuxvill on
Cannot wait for my free broadband router, during the next national or global crises.
TitularClergy on
If you eject me from the Labour party, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Strict_Counter_8974 on
He’s one of the most embarrassing humans in history
StitchedPaths on
Jeremy Corbyn came on holiday near where my parents lived in the summer of 2020 and pissed everyone off by not wearing a face mask and standing too close to people (I think you had to be 1.5 metres apart at the time) and snapping at anyone who pointed it out. And he walked around looking like he was sucking a lemon.
It’s got nothing to do with this latest behaviour, it’s just that his scowling, sunburnt face and bad posture is just such a bloody trigger these days.
ShermyTheCat on
Can someone give me a bulletpoint list of reasons they don’t like corbyn? I genuinely don’t know why people don’t like him, he seems like a guy who fights for the working class consistently
BudgetCowboy97 on
Why on earth does this guy get as much hate as he does? It honestly baffles me.
A good bloke who clearly cares about both his constituents and his country, yet gets vilified by the media and public persistently
29 Comments
Jeremy Corbyn has addressed a meeting for a new leftwing political party named Collective attended by the former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and a number of former independent candidates.
Key figures in the group said they hoped the party would act as an incubator for future leaders who could replace Corbyn as a figurehead of the left, and aim to contest seats at the next general election.
At the private meeting on Sunday, where Corbyn gave the opening speech, founders said they would begin drawing up democratic structures for a new party to launch.
A source close to Corbyn said his attendance was not an official endorsement and that he had attended the meeting to “listen to and share a variety of views about the way forward for the left”.
Organisers said they hoped that forming a new party would be a way of garnering new support. “There will be a new left party that will contest the next election and hopefully be a meaningful counterweight to Reform and the rightwing drift of the Labour party,” one said.
Others who attended the meeting on Sunday included the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, the film director Ken Loach, Andrew Feinstein, the anti-apartheid activist who stood against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, and Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy. Representatives also attended from We Deserve Better and a range of independent local groups and smaller leftwing parties.
It is understood not all attenders are in favour of a new leftwing party, including Feinstein and Driscoll. It also may not ultimately involve the four independent candidates who won seats at the last general election on a pro-Palestinian platform and who have subsequently formed a parliamentary alliance with Corbyn.
Pamela Fitzpatrick, the director of Corbyn’s Peace and Justice project, who will be the movement’s director, said “now is the time” to become an established party.
“We have seen the rise of the far right and already people are feeling politically homeless because they were so desperate for change but support for Labour is dropping so quickly. We need a real movement that can fill that gap,” she said.
The movement, which formed earlier this year, shared a strategy briefing with attenders on Sunday, which suggested there should be a mass membership drive and an attempt to get trade unions to affiliate.
“Lots of people have been involved in independent campaigns in the last election that did surprisingly well, even if they didn’t win. This was the beginning of a potential mass movement of the working class outside of the Labour party,” one source involved said.
Those involved in Sunday’s meeting included independent candidates whom organisers consider the future of the movement, including Fiona Lali, who stood as the Revolutionary Communist candidate in Stratford and Bow, and Sean Halsall, an independent candidate in Southport.
Senior figures involved in the group said the time was right to begin planning for a new political party now that it was clear Corbyn and many of his supporters had no future in the Labour party.
“I think that there’s a real sense within the movement that there is an opportunity, but also a challenge for the left to move beyond Jeremy,” one said. “I think that there is a real concern that if we, if the left, doesn’t do this now, and if we don’t act now, then the Starmer government is just going to open the door to Farage as the next prime minister.”
Organisers believe the moment is right to launch the new party as Starmer’s Labour party faces a tough winter, including significant criticism of decisions to cut the winter fuel allowances for all but the poorest pensioners and stall NHS and infrastructure projects. A further meeting is planned in six weeks.
A number of disaffected leftwing activists and voters have turned to the Green party in recent years but organisers hoping to set up the new party said they believed it would have a separate tradition – though it could be a “meaningful electoral bloc”.
Corbyn announced last week that he would be forming a parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who had campaigned on a pro-Gaza platform, though the group has also raised issues of poverty and the two-child benefit cap.
There are no plans yet to involve those MPs in the formation of the new party. “It’s not obviously clear that they share a kind of broad-based political project,” one source said.
Scepticism about the launch of a new party comes in part because of the very limited success of other similar leftwing parties, including Left Unity, which was launched by Loach in 2013.
The former Labour MP George Galloway launched his Respect party in the aftermath of the Iraq war and contested recent elections under the Workers party GB banner, briefly winning a seat at the Rochdale byelection, which he lost at the general election.
Fitzpatrick, who was previously a Labour councillor and has stood as an independent, said the movement would take time to launch as a political party. “We don’t want to make the same mistakes as the past,” she said.
Corbyn wrote in a piece for the Guardian earlier this year that he intended to back a grassroots movement “capable of challenging the stale two-party system” and said it would “eventually run in elections”. However, he said in the piece that “to create a new, centralised party, based around the personality of one person, is to put the cart before the horse.”
Well I always said that the JC/Momentum/Comrade Brigade should sod off and form their own one based on their own policies and principles and test it with the electorate at the ballot box rather than dragging down the Labour party.
And they may well be doing that so we will see….
I was very supportive of Corbyn’s domestic policy, but dismayed at almost every other aspect of his leadership of Labour. So, as much as I’d love there to be a viable left wing alternative, I just don’t think he’s the guy to lead it.
I’d give it a month before it collapses in factionalism, purity tests, accusations and recriminations.
Was this name chosen as part of an opening task for The Apprentice?
Yeah naming yourselves after the borg doesn’t seem like the best idea.
“The collective” conjuring up both images of both yoghurt and an obsessive unified hive mind seems ideal for a Corbyn led party, he should get on board!
Preparing for the worst possible foreign policy positions.
Just call it what it is Jeremy… the JCCP.
Even better just move to Venezuela you’ll be welcomed there.
The story contradicts the headline in para 4.
The names a bit naff too.
They get cows to swallow a magnet so it collects any bits of old metal rubbish they eat.
Like that, but a political party
Tories will win next election then, won’t they? Oh dear.
>Others who attended the meeting on Sunday included ….. Lutfur Rahman
The most corrupt politician in Britain who still has his post.
Thank god he didn’t name it like a london gang would name themselves.
Oh wait.
This is going to start looking like italy with parties, counter parties, sub parties, but ultimately No1 retains control…
Should have saved everyone time and named it “irrelevant”.
A source close to Corbyn said his attendance was not an official endorsement and that he had attended the meeting to “listen to and share a variety of views about the way forward for the left”.
My favourite thing about the left is how much it hates other leftists. If the vote splits, I ticks, that’s my motto round election time.
Something tells me Jeremy never took clothing cash for his corduroys.
He simply does not have the necessary skills to run a modern party. He’s a typical Boomer: thinks he knows it all, won’t listen to anyone who does know anything useful, and knows so little that he doesn’t understand the concept of planning and can’t distinguish between ridiculous plans and ones that make sense.
He also absented the party for years to focus on in-fighting.
All this will do is siphon off votes from other clueless Labour Boomers and hand the Tories the next election. The best thing Keir Starmer did for the party was to jettison the clueless, squabbling Boomers but of course they’re too arrogant to stay gone.
Love him or hate him, I can see the point. Labour isn’t a left wing party anymore , it’s just right of centre .
I would advise the new name: Socialist Party. (+/- united)
**Jeremy Corbyn Releases Controversial Statement Claiming Sauron Was the “Real Hero” of Lord of the Rings, Sparks Outrage**
LONDON — In an unprecedented and frankly confusing turn of events, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has found himself at the center of yet another controversy after releasing a statement Thursday evening claiming that Sauron, the Dark Lord from J.R.R. Tolkien’s *The Lord of the Rings*, was “actually the good guy all along.”
Corbyn, who is no stranger to controversial opinions, reportedly made the statement after binge-watching Peter Jackson’s *Lord of the Rings* trilogy for the first time during a quiet evening at home. In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), the left-wing stalwart declared: “Having carefully watched *Lord of the Rings*, it’s become clear to me that Sauron was unfairly maligned. He simply wanted to unite Middle-earth and provide structure, order, and good jobs for all the orcs, goblins, and men who were tired of being exploited by an elitist wizard class.”
The reaction was swift and furious, with even longtime supporters finding themselves bewildered. “I agree with Jeremy on a lot of things, but this… this is just mad,” said lifelong Labour voter Gillian Harper. “Sauron was trying to enslave all of Middle-earth. Did he *not* see the part with the eye thing?”
Corbyn’s statement continued: “The so-called ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ was little more than a ragtag band of bourgeois saboteurs, hell-bent on preserving their outdated monarchies and landowner privileges. And let’s not forget, it was the elves—who live forever in gated communities—who pushed the war agenda. Sauron simply sought to redistribute power.”
Corbyn’s take on the famously evil overlord has drawn condemnation from all political quarters. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued a swift rebuttal. “It’s frankly shocking that anyone, let alone a former party leader, would sympathize with a literal embodiment of evil. Sauron is not some misunderstood politician—he’s an existential threat to the free peoples of Middle-earth.”
Corbyn doubled down in a follow-up interview on *Good Morning Britain*, calling the One Ring a “symbol of centralized authority” that could be “used for the benefit of all” if it weren’t for the selfishness of the so-called “heroes.” “Why should one small, insular group have the right to decide who gets the Ring? Why can’t Mordor be given a chance to show it can govern responsibly under Sauron’s leadership? It’s classic anti-Mordor propaganda.”
Many on social media have pointed out that Corbyn’s interpretation ignores the massive death tolls inflicted by Sauron’s armies, his enslavement of countless species, and the whole “endless darkness and despair” bit. Others, however, have been more receptive to Corbyn’s nuanced take. “It’s refreshing to see someone challenge the mainstream narrative about Sauron,” tweeted one self-described Corbynista. “Just because Mordor was militarized doesn’t mean they didn’t have legitimate grievances.”
Middle-Earth Studies professors were quick to distance themselves from Corbyn’s remarks. “While Tolkien’s work has always invited political interpretation, suggesting that Sauron was a misunderstood leader looking to redistribute power is a gross misreading,” said Dr. Emily Hartford, an expert in Tolkien literature. “He was literally a giant flaming eye seeking to dominate all life. That’s not usually considered a progressive platform.”
Despite the outcry, Corbyn shows no signs of walking back his statement. “It’s time we reconsider the ‘evil overlord’ narrative and ask who benefits from it,” Corbyn said defiantly in a Facebook post this morning. “Sauron was fighting for Mordor’s working class, while Frodo and Gandalf were mere pawns of the entrenched oligarchy. This isn’t fiction—this is class warfare.”
At press time, Corbyn was reportedly planning a viewing of *Star Wars*, where he is expected to announce that the Galactic Empire “had some valid points.”
Cannot wait for my free broadband router, during the next national or global crises.
If you eject me from the Labour party, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
He’s one of the most embarrassing humans in history
Jeremy Corbyn came on holiday near where my parents lived in the summer of 2020 and pissed everyone off by not wearing a face mask and standing too close to people (I think you had to be 1.5 metres apart at the time) and snapping at anyone who pointed it out. And he walked around looking like he was sucking a lemon.
It’s got nothing to do with this latest behaviour, it’s just that his scowling, sunburnt face and bad posture is just such a bloody trigger these days.
Can someone give me a bulletpoint list of reasons they don’t like corbyn? I genuinely don’t know why people don’t like him, he seems like a guy who fights for the working class consistently
Why on earth does this guy get as much hate as he does? It honestly baffles me.
A good bloke who clearly cares about both his constituents and his country, yet gets vilified by the media and public persistently