TL;DR
- Zarah Sultana is now the sole custodian of over £800,000 in donations for Your Party amid internal disputes, having promised to transfer the funds to the party.
- Tensions escalated with former MoU directors, who resigned after complaints over the lack of control and governance within Your Party and concerns about potential legal liabilities.
- Sultana’s recent, unauthorised membership launch has complicated the funding situation, as the funds collected through it are not expected to be transferred, necessitating refunds for many new members.
Zarah Sultana takes over company holding £800,000 in Your Party donations after major row
Zarah Sultana now has sole control of over £800,000 of Your Party donations following a fresh internal fallout.
She has assured co-leader Jeremy Corbyn the money will be transferred to the party as a whole after the party received a massive setback with lots of internal fighting.
Rachel Reeves has to go after breaking law
However that is yet to happen, frustrating some Your Party figures who have been trying to access the funds for weeks, in a situation one source described as “an insane mess”.
There has been a major row behind the scenes with the previous custodians of the donations – former Labour MP Beth Winter, former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll and former South African politician Andrew Feinstein.
Your Party was launched in July
The trio were the directors of a company called MoU Operations, which was set up in April to support an independent alliance of MPs centred around former Labour leader Mr Corbyn.
When Your Party was launched in July, its privacy policy stated that donations would be collected by MoU until the new movement was formally constituted and had its own bank account.
Your Party was registered with the electoral commission on 30 September, when it declared assets of £850,000, but no transfer of funds was made despite repeated requests from senior figures to MoU.
The row reached boiling point this week as Your Party sources said they were considering legal action. Sky News understands lawyers had drafted a ‘letter before action’ to send to MoU, putting them on notice of court proceedings, before the three directors broke their silence and quit on Wednesday night.
In a lengthy statement, the trio said the role of holding donations was “thrust upon” them and the company had been “repeatedly been used without our agreement”. They said a transfer of funds had been further complicated by Ms Sultana’s unauthorised membership launch last month, which left MoU vulnerable to liabilities.
‘Totally undemocratic’
The group said that since the end of September, they have been asking Your Party to take complete ownership and control of MoU, but this was refused.
Ms Sultana taking the reins was aimed at breaking the impasse. However one Your Party source told Sky News it is “only a resolution if Zarah transfers the money to the Your Party bank account”.
Another Your Party source pointed to a statement she made on social media on Wednesday night, in which she said the MoU resources “will now be used for Your Party as was always intended”.
The source said: “Zarah created this utter mess then poses as coming to the rescue, but she didn’t actually say she would transfer it in her statement.
“Imagine if this was the Labour Party and one MP had control of the funds. It’s totally undemocratic.”
A source close to Ms Sultana said that legal formalities are being concluded and the cash will “100%” be moved over as soon as practically possible, stressing there is no deliberate delay.
She is defiant and determined, and is was willing to take on risks associated with MoU to get the issue resolved before the founding conference next month.
The row, which also relates to data, is deeply damaging for a party that had promised to revive the British left but has so far been marred by chaos and division.
Ms Sultana announced the new party in early July in a move that appeared to catch Mr Corbyn off guard – with the official launch coming weeks later.
