No, naming Corbyn as Your Party leader with the Electoral Commission is not undemocratic

Civil war has again ignited among the left after the registration documents of the new Your Party as an official political party named Jeremy Corbyn as leader. This was posted by the Stats for Lefties X account with a comment that it was done “without a members’ ballot”:

It’s true that Corbyn is named as leader in the registration, but no, this was not a power-grab – or at least, the presence of Corbyn’s name in the leader line doesn’t automatically make it one, because Electoral Commission rules require the name of a leader to be stated in the registration:

But that doesn’t mean that the now-official Your Party handled it well, either.

Corbyn and Your Party: the situation can be redeemed

Given the events of recent weeks and the divisions, or at least perceptions of divisions, among the leadership, putting Corbyn’s name down as leader posed an obvious risk of creating the appearance of a power-grab – one that has only been heightened by the apparent failure of Sultana to even mention the registration (by the time of writing). She did, however, share a Corbyn X post about Keir Starmer’s dire speech.

Skwawkbox understands from YP insiders that the appointment is only an interim step to fulfil the Electoral Commission requirements – with some even saying that Corbyn doesn’t even intend to stand for the leadership long-term, although this is disputed by others.

But given that, it would arguably have been far better to name someone that was unaligned with either Corbyn or Sultana, even someone nobody had ever heard of, as ‘interim’ leader, given the party’s conference takes place next month. Registering it in the way it’s been done has invited problems and created a vacuum that will automatically be filled by competing arguments and rumours. It’s another missed opportunity, and probably another screw-up, that need never have happened.

There is time to redeem the situation and put the record straight: neither Corbyn nor Sultana took the opportunity to appear on Your Show this week, but both are scheduled to appear together at the Liverpool Community Independents/Mersey Pensioners event at St George’s Hall next week, which local organisers have asked Skwawkbox to stream live.

At a minimum, both must appear and both must show authentically that they are united, or re-united, that YP’s leader will be democratically elected – and that they are fully committed to YP no matter who is leading it. There is no more room for ego, amateurism, territorialism or screw-ups. Fascism is on our streets and in Downing Street.

Featured image via the Canary