Labour ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn says he’s starting a new left-wing UK party

Former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses activists at a 'climate strike' demonstration, part of the global 'Fridays for Future' movement led by Swedish teenage environmentalist Greta Thunberg, in Parliament Square in London, Sept. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/David Cliff, File)

LONDON — Labour Party ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday that he’s forming a new left-leaning U.K. political party to advocate “mass redistribution of wealth and power” and take on his former colleagues at the ballot box.

The new formation has a website — yourparty.uk — but doesn’t have a name yet.

“It’s your party,” Corbyn said. “We’re going to decide (a name) when we’ve had all the responses, and so far the response rate has been massive.”

Corbyn said that he hoped the new party would have its inaugural conference in the fall.

Corbyn, 76, led Labour to election defeats in 2017 and 2019, but the veteran socialist campaigner remains popular with many grassroots supporters.

The new party has the potential to further fragment British politics. The long-dominant Labour and Conservative parties now have challengers on both left and right, including the environmentalist Green Party and hard-right Reform UK.

Plans for a new party emerged earlier this month when lawmaker Zarah Sultana, who has been suspended from Labour for voting against the government, said that she would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn.

At the time, Corbyn didn’t confirm the news.

On Thursday, he denied the party launch had been messy, saying the process was “democratic, it’s grassroots and it’s open.”

A longtime supporter of Palestinians and a critic of Israel, Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 after Britain’s equalities watchdog found anti-Jewish prejudice had been allowed to spread within Labour while he was leader.

He was suspended after failing to fully accept the findings, claiming opponents had exaggerated the scale of antisemitism in Labour for “political reasons.”

Corbyn was re-elected to Parliament last year as an independent.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn as Labour leader in 2020 and dragged the party back toward the political centre ground. He dropped Corbyn’s opposition to Britain’s nuclear weapons, strongly backed sending weapons to Ukraine and stressed the party’s commitment to balancing the books.

Starmer won a landslide election victory a year ago, but has struggled to maintain unity among Labour lawmakers as the government struggles to get a sluggish economy growing and invest in overstretched public services. He has been forced into a series of U-turns by his own lawmakers, including one on welfare reform that left his authority severely dented.

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press