Collective Party

Collective Party (Political party)
Founder	•  Jeremy Corbyn •  Ken Loach •  Len McCluskey
Interest of	Pamela Fitzpatrick

The Collective Party was formed on 15 September 2024 in Britain as a new left-leaning political party, which could become the largest party in the UK by membership and rival Reform UK’s poll levels.

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”.

We Deserve Better

Representatives from We Deserve Better, a campaign group that backed left-wing candidates from different parties in the election, also attended the meeting, as well as people from small left wing parties and independent local groups. One organiser said:

There will be a new left party that will contest the next election and hopefully be a meaningful counterweight to Reform UK and the rightwing drift of the Labour Party.

PJP link

Director of Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project Pamela Fitzpatrick will be the movement’s director. She said:

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.

Contesting Harrow West in the UK/General election/2024 as an Independent, Fitzpatrick came third.

Independent campaigning

Another source involved told The Canary:

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 example is Leanne Mohamad. Although Palestinian/British Independent candidate Mohamad didn’t win, she came about 500 votes from unseating Labour’s health secretary Wes Streeting.

Opening the door to Farage

One senior figure involved in the Collective movement pointed out the stakes are high:

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 Nigel Farage as the next prime minister.

Indeed, during the UK/General election/2024, Starmer pulled the campaign of the Labour candidate in Nigel Farage’s constituency of Clacton, helping Farage win the seat. Like we see in France, ‘centrists’ will hand the keys to the far right rather than compromise with the left.

Starmer purged Corbyn and a number of left-wingers from standing as Labour candidates in the election. Since then, he has continued his authoritarian approach, removing the whip from left-wing backbenchers for voting with their conscience. With the new Collective movement forming, could Starmer’s hostile environment for progressives in Labour backfire?

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:A New Left Wing Party in the UK?	blog post	18 September 2024	Craig Murray	Initially any new party needs to be led by Jeremy to establish itself. George should be Deputy Leader. Neither man would wish to serve for an extended period. I would like to see Andrew Feinstein eventually lead, not least because he most definitely would not want to do it.

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