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Jeremy Corbyn has addressed a meeting for a new left-leaning political party called ‘Collective’, which could become the largest party in the UK by membership and rival Reform UK’s poll levels.
The former Labour leader attended the gathering alongside Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and a number of former independent candidates as founders of the new party set about drawing up democratic structures for a new party to launch.
“There will be a new left party that will contest the next election and hopefully be a meaningful counterweight to Reform and the rightwing drift of the Labour party,” one organiser told The Guardian.
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”.
Others who attended the meeting on Sunday included the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, the film director Ken Loach, Andrew Feinstein, the anti-apartheid activist who stood against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, and Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy.
Representatives also attended from We Deserve Better and a range of independent local groups and smaller leftwing parties.
Pamela Fitzpatrick, the director of Corbyn’s Peace and Justice project, who will be the movement’s director, said “now is the time” to become an established party.
“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,” she said.
Organisers believe the moment is right to launch the new party as Starmer’s Labour party faces a tough winter, including significant criticism of decisions to cut the winter fuel allowances for all but the poorest pensioners and stall NHS and infrastructure projects.
A further meeting is planned in six weeks.
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