Owen Jones just called for Corbyn-Sultana party to join forces with the Greens

Owen Jones and the group We Deserve Better are spearheading a push for Corbyn/Sultana-Green Party election pact in the wake of the emerging new left party.

Labour: a political earthquake is coming

Keir Starmer faces a “left-wing political earthquake” We Deserve Better warned, as they launched a push for a left-wing electoral alliance.

It comes following the announcement of a new party from Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. With nearly 500,000 sign ups already, left-wingers are eyeing up substantial gains at the next election, with Keir Starmer’s own seat of Holborn and St Pancras under threat.

The campaign represents another headache for Starmer and his beleaguered strategist Morgan McSweeney, who has focused on the party’s threat to the Right from Reform UK. But We Deserve Better – a left-wing cross-party group launched by columnist Owen Jones last year when he quit the Labour Party – have identified dozens of seats, largely in urban areas, where Green, New Party or Independent candidates could defeat Labour at the next General Election.

Taking inspiration from the New Popular Front, an alliance of left-wing parties which won the French Parliamentary elections last year, the group sees potential for major gains if a unified Left candidate can be presented, amid widespread disaffection with the Labour Government over the cost-of-living, cuts and Gaza. The need for such an alliance is all the more acute, they stress, given the UK’s First-Past-the-Post electoral system.

No one is safe

In Ilford North young British-Palestinian Leanne Mohamad would have unseated Wes Streeting on a unified Left ticket. Leanne won 32.3% of the vote, Streeting got 33.4% of the vote, and the Green candidate got 3.8%. Streeting held on by just 529 votes, leaving him at risk in 2029, despite rumours of a potential leadership bid. Similarly, the combined Green-Independent vote in Birmingham Ladywood exceeded the vote share of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Even Keir Starmer isn’t safe. Starmer saw his majority in Holborn and St Pancras halved by Independent candidate, Andrew Feinstein, the South African former ANC MP who has been closely involved in planning around the new Corbyn-Sultana party. The latest MRP poll has the joint Feinstein-Green vote neck and neck with the Labour Leader. David Lammy also saw his majority halved in Tottenham, where the Greens surged, with an Independent in third place.

As the new left party forms and the Greens come to the conclusion of their leadership elections, We Deserve Better will begin campaigning, publicly and privately, for both parties to commit to an electoral pact, alongside left-wing Independents as and when relevant. This is likely to include campaigning with allies through the parties’ democratic channels.

Owen Jones: there must be an electoral pact

Hilary Schan, Chair of We Deserve Better, said:

Two-party politics is dead. With record disapproval ratings for Starmer’s Labour, the Left has a historic opportunity. The huge energy behind the new party and the growing success of the Greens show the hunger out there for a real alternative to privatisation, runaway bills and elitist politics. But to win big, and unseat Keir Starmer and his ministers, the Left must work together. That’s why an electoral pact between the new party, Independents and the Greens is so crucial, as the New Popular Front in France has shown. We must unite to win.

Owen Jones, columnist and left-wing writer, said:

From privatisation to wealth taxes to the genocide in Gaza, our political class are out of touch with public opinion. There are millions of people crying out for a real alternative. The launch of a new left-wing party is an exciting, inspiring moment for everyone who wants change. To win under first-past-the-post, the Left must be united. That must mean electoral pacts between the new party and the Greens.

Featured image via screengrab