‘Your Party’ is already eating itself

Tensions have flared up once again on Britain’s Islamo-left, as socially conservative Muslims and middle-class ‘progressives’ realise they have very few views in common beyond being pro-Palestine.

A few weeks ago, we saw this conflict erupt in the Green Party. Practising Muslim Mothin Ali, elected today as the Greens’ deputy co-leader, appeared reluctant to sign a set of ‘pledges’ on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ Greens, Feminist Greens and other similar groups. This quickly prompted a hilarious falling-out between the two wings of the Islamo-left alliance. It showed that while they find common ground over Palestine, they are diametrically opposed when it comes to other ‘progressive’ issues, particularly queer and trans rights.

This time, rows are breaking out in Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ (a placeholder name until a permanent one is decided at the first party conference). Having pledged his support for Your Party, Adnan Hussain, an Independent Alliance MP for Blackburn, who was elected in 2024 on a pro-Gaza ticket, posted a tweet last week rejecting the idea that transwomen are women as they are not biologically female. He stressed that ‘women’s rights and safe spaces should not be encroached upon’.

Trans-activist India Willoughby, who appears to spend his days scouring the internet for posts he deems offensive, immediately called on Corbyn and Sultana to condemn Hussain’s ‘transphobic’ views. Willoughby even asked Hussain how he would feel if someone questioned his Britishness.

Then Sultana stuck her oar in. Supporting Willoughby, Sultana said that she had ‘always stood with the trans community’ and ‘always will’. ‘The same forces targeting migrants and Muslims are attacking LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people’, she said. (Corbyn has said nothing so far, although he appeared in a video recorded on Saturday at a Your Party rally in Blackburn, where he was shown hugging and joking with Hussain.)

This tawdry online dispute illustrates the irreconcilable conflict at the heart of Islamo-leftist movements like Your Party. Blue-haired Corbynistas and socially conservative Muslims may march in lock step on Gaza and issues like ‘Islamophobia’. But they are not remotely aligned on other ‘progressive’ causes, including abortion, assisted dying and, above all, so-called trans rights.

It is hard to see how they can ever resolve their disagreements over gender identity. The average British Muslim simply will not see eye-to-eye with progressives who believe that a man is a woman if he identifies as such. In fact, British Muslims are more socially conservative than the general population, let alone the pseudo-radical poseurs of the modern left. They are divided by a cultural chasm.

Both sides may well share concerns over economic inequality in the UK and the humanitarian situation in Gaza. But on key cultural issues, they are at loggerheads. Like all political marriages of convenience, this one can only end in tears.

That said, few expected this particular relationship to be souring quite so soon. Your Party doesn’t even have a proper name yet, and it is already eating itself. Cheers to that.

Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.