In a week where the government looked like a mess, Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced that she was leaving the Labour Party after 14 years.

Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, was stripped of the Labour whip last year – along with 6 other Labour MPs – for voting against the government in favour of an SNP motion calling for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

In a statement on 3rd July, Sultana claimed that “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper”.

She claimed “Now, the government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much”. Compared Starmer to Farage in the debate over the conflict in Gaza, and said that “this government is an active participant in genocide”.

The biggest part of the statement, however, was that Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn MP would co-lead the founding of a new party and would include other independent MPs.

Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, released a statement, headed “Real Change is Coming”, congratulating Zarah Sultana on the decision to leave the Labour Party and he was delighted she would help to build a real alternative.

Following news that Corbyn was unaware of the suggestion of a new party, in the statement he said “the democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape” and “Discussions are ongoing”.

My Take:

I am a Labour supporter and will continue to be. There are many things that have annoyed me about this Labour government. It could go further with it’s ambitions and it was the wrong decision to go after those people on benefits who need them, whether it’s the winter fuel payments or disability payments.

The War in Gaza has gone on for too long. Whether you agree or disagree with why Israel took the decisions it has, we now all accept that it has gone on for too long.

I think it is time to accept as a country we don’t have much say over it. Yes we can call out the Israeli government, just like we would call out any government around the world, but ultimately we don’t have the influence that the United States does.

Our government can only do so much.

I did vote for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, and don’t get me wrong in 2017 I was really hoping that he could’ve got the Tories out, but as time went on the love was lost. I will always want a Labour government but by 2019 Corbyn had made too many spending commitments and the parts of the party had been let lose and needed kicking out because of racism.

But I still voted Labour, because it was a better option than the Tories.

I respect Corbyn. From people I’ve spoken to he’s a very good local MP and he is clearly passionate about what he believes in, I just disagree with him on certain areas. His leadership of Labour wasn’t the best and that’s why he had to go.

I also respect Zarah Sultanas decision to leave the party, but I do disagree with it.

If you want something to change you should stay in and fight for that change. Especially in politics, where splitting the vote can be costly.

Labour are in government now. It isn’t about protesting and opposing, it’s about governing. When people break into an RAF base – regardless of what they do – questions should be asked about motives. 99.9% of time it can be seen as an act of terror. Why else would you want to break into an RAF base, especially at a time tension across the world.

The decision to make another party will only serve to help the parties on the right by breaking up the votes on the left further. They may win the seats they’ve got at the next general election, but across other seats they will just help Reform or the Tories.

We need to stick together. We need to reform the Labour Party.

The government need to look outward, but we all need to stick together.

There is more that we agree with, than that what we disagree with.