Leaflet suggests Corbyn has endorsed three ex-Tory councillors
This article was updated at 5:50pm on Friday 3 April to reflect a statement from Your Party.
Jeremy Corbyn-led Your Party won’t be fielding councillors in the upcoming local elections. They will, however, be backing various independents. Now, we’re learning such independents could include ex-Tory councillors:
‼️BREAKING | Your Party's candidates for 2026 include three councillors who were Conservative members as recently as January 2026
Gaz Ali, Amo Hussain, Izzy Hussain all sat as Tories on Walsall Council until Jan '26. Now backed by Corbyn.
(Leaflet edited to hide phone numbers) pic.twitter.com/azYoWufF0a
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 2, 2026
“Endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn”
One thing to note is that the above flyer states “endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn” rather than ‘endorsed by Your Party‘. Corbyn is free to support whoever he likes, but as the party’s parliamentary leader, people will interpret his endorsement as the position of Your Party.
The endorsement was first highlighted by the Green Party’s Mish Rahman:
the candidates in my area are 3 deselected Tory cllrs, all cabinet portfolio holders part of the local Tory administration lol
They have moved wards as indys and are standing against me in the same ward. pic.twitter.com/b4Em7up7Ur— Mish Rahman (@mish_rahman) April 2, 2026
Rahman was a Labour NEC member between 2020 and 2024. When defecting to the Greens in January 2026, he said:
Politics must be about clarity and courage.
We are facing a convergence of crises: the rise of the far right, a cost of living emergency pushing working-class people to the brink and civil liberties eroded by successive governments. These are not abstract threats, they are lived realities for millions.
Today I have joined The Green Party because it is prepared to confront these challenges honestly: to defend democracy, stand up for social justice, and recognise that economic fairness and environmental responsibility are inseparable.
Earlier today (2 April), we reported on Your Party’s plans for the local elections:
As party structures continue to develop, Your Party will support around 250 candidates across England. The vast majority of these will be standing as Independents or for allied local community parties.
Your Party targets
Key targets for allied groups include:
- Tower Hamlets, run by Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire since 2022.
- Redbridge (see below).
- Newham, where the Newham Independents Party has recently won multiple by-elections.
- Bradford, where Labour’s support has been in massive decline.
Later in the day – and after the Mish Rahman tweet – New Statesman’s Ava-Santina posted that Walsall is in the mix too:
NEW: Your Party unveil their "get Labour out" local election strategy.
Full list of YP candidates coming later today
– Walsall
– Bradford
– Southport
– Oldham
– RedbridgeCorbyn: “These elections are the beginning of the fightback against austerity, privatisation and fear.
— Ava-Santina (@AvaSantina) April 2, 2026
This could be ex-Tories highlighted above, or it could be the ex-Labour independents who joined Your Party last year.
Stats for Lefties engaged in the following discussion on whether the endorsement is real (we’ve got to admit; we do keep rubbing our eyes and glancing back at it):
People outside Your Party have reacted as follows:
Independents
As reported by Birmingham Live, Gaz Ali and Amo Hussain were actually deselected by the Conservatives. In other words, if they didn’t go independent, they couldn’t have defended their council seats in the upcoming local elections.
In a statement on why the three men subsequently quit the Conservative Party, they said:
Our decision is driven by a number of factors. First and foremost is the treatment of several of our colleagues within the Aldridge and Brownhills Conservative Association. The exclusion of good, hard-working councillors, individuals who have given years of loyal service, has been deeply troubling.
In particular, the failure to approve respected councillors such as Keith Sears, who has dedicated over 50 years of service to Walsall and to the Conservative Party, is something we cannot overlook.
We are also increasingly concerned about the direction of the national Conservative Party. The tone and rhetoric emerging from parliamentary leadership appear divisive and risk marginalising communities.
We have always believed that politics should bring people together, and that the party should be inclusive and unifying. Regrettably, this is no longer a position we feel able to align ourselves with.
Ah yes – the Conservative Party – those great unifiers of modern Britain.
Who could forget how unified we felt when we suffered through the devastating austerity cuts of the 2010s – cuts which didn’t touch the rich even slightly.
It just doesn’t wash, does it?
Corbyn Endorsing Deselected Tories as "Independent Socialists" is no surprise, since we've already seen a near year of the "Social Conservative" shite from His Party.
Honestly, he should have just ran for London Mayor & Kept whatever respect he had left. He could have even won. https://t.co/VieTmnFXxi— Michael Walsh (@thatbloodyMikey) April 2, 2026
The big question is this: would the trio have quit if not for being deselected?
The answer is ‘we don’t know’.
Forgetting that, Corbyn and Your Party should have a policy of never endorsing anyone who’s ever had anything to do with the Tories.
And never in a million years did we think we’d need to explain that.
How did it come to this?
We contacted Your Party on Thursday 2 April for a response, with a deadline of 8pm on the same day. This article was published at 12:50am on Friday 3 April. The Canary received a response from Your Party at around 4pm on 3 April. A spokesperson said:
Neither Jeremy nor Your Party has endorsed these candidates. Any suggestion otherwise should be immediately corrected.
No permission has been given for Jeremy’s name to be used on any individual candidate’s leaflet.
But of course, Corbyn did endorse the group that the three candidates are part of:
Walsall Community Independents Launch Event
It was an exciting, inspiring, and great evening at Palfrey Centre.
Shyekh Omar Ali, Councillor Pete Smith, Councillor Aftab Nawaz, and Chief guest Jeremy Corbyn MP spoke of unity, supporting each other and putting the people before… pic.twitter.com/b6LELenCgs
— Walsall Community Independents (@IndWalsall) February 14, 2026
Overall, it’s not controversial to say Your Party has not turned out how many hoped it would.
Despite attracting 800,000 signups upon its announcement, the party would go on to secure a fraction of that number once it opened up to members. Since then, the party has failed to place in most polls, while the Green Party has captured much of Your Party’s initial enthusiasm.
There are good people in the party, and we know that many of them are struggling to process this latest development.
That's quite enough for me, I think. What a massive disaster this has all been. Shame on those who squandered this opportunity to build a genuinely decent political alternative. https://t.co/G8Z6DHUCfj pic.twitter.com/eWWBi4ofpR
— chloe (@Dykeocletian) April 2, 2026
Solidarity with all those who just wanted Your Party to be a clear alternative to Labour and the Tories.
We contacted Your Party to confirm the endorsement, but had not heard back at the time of publication.
Featured image via X/Twitter
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Hi, Walsall bloke here. This seems strange. Of the three ex-Tories, one is from Blakenall ward and I thin he has co-operated on local matters with Cllr Pete Smith, a former Labour councillor chucked out by Kinnock who has quite often won the ward asn independent. The other two flipped the working-class, previously Labour, Birchills-Leamore ward for the Tories. They are among a number of local Tories to fall victim to an internecine local party bloodbath. Vera Waters is an odd companion for these Muslim guys, having been suspended in the past as two right-wing for the Tories. (Allegedly racist remarks in November 2019.)
Walsall Council is an utter shitshow, currently embroiled in a scandal over its plans to close the local Leather Museum. (Google “Walsall Leather Museum” if interested.)
Apologies for typos above. I think the comment is still understandable.
People who go into local politics are not the ones setting national Austerity policies, for crying out loud!
I can’t believe I used to pay money for this immature, lefty-student level of idiocy.
No wonder the writer loves the GPEW so much – Polanski is just Blair (Or Zelensky) 2.0, someone the writer undoubtedly in the beginning was extremely enthusiastic for. Having all the political nous and instincts of a dead mouse.
Local councillors who “flipped” a working class community from Labour, are either white racists running on Reform’s/Corporate media’s establishment racism, or else offered the WORKING CLASS VOTERS a better choice than what Labour was offering. Considering their skin colour and names, the latter seems more likely.
Willem Moore, like Joe Glenton before you, your level of “analysis” is simply beyond poor, you would ABSOLUTELY fail any polsci A level on the spot.
Atrocious.
“They were Tories, so they are EEEVVVIILLLLL!”. Seriously Willem, give up your day job, and take up one of your hobbies instead. Painting Warhammer miniatures is probably more your political level.
In the case of the former Blakenall councillor, I think you may well be right that he was offering something to working-class voters that the Labour candidates weren’t. With the Birchill-Leamore ward, I was a bit more surprised, partly because the Labour councillors were pretty visible locally. The demographic of the two wards is also perhaps a bit surprising for south Asian Muslim Tory candidates to win. In the case of Birchills-Leamore, Birchills is quite heavily MUslim, while Leamore is overwhelmingly white working class, as is Blakenall ward. All three are now standing in the Paddock ward, which combines the largely south Asian Chuckery area with solidly middle-class, largely Tory areas around Birmingham Road.
Interesting. Thanks Alan.
There are plenty of Right-Wing rags that would lap up this wierd story. Best to leave it to them chaps?
My comment next is not to come to the defence of Your Party nor Corbyn nor any other, the British electoral system is a capitalist ridden shit show that I have post 2020 given up any partaking in as no actual left wing government will ever be allowed to come to power in this country and if they ever got near it their leaders would be shot, or the military would stage a coup, or the oligarchs and minority Zionists would use all financial means to decimate the country in order to force them out of office, however regarding the article itself I must say the following.
This story should not have been published until comment is secured from the man supposedly endorsing these candidates as either he needs to explain himself or it needs to be sent to the electoral commission for them to verify, all this article does is continue an unsubstantiated assumption based on a leaflet anyone can print, while sticking a boot into “your party” in a general sense on the side of the main point.
If I wanted unsubstantiated gossip with a dose of sour grapes I’d read the sun.
Well spoken Luciano. With EVERY point you just raised.