We believe the new party announced on July 24 by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana is a project of historic importance and we celebrate the excitement it generated among many thousands of activists desperate for a break from the failed politics of the past.

We write as committed participants in the party building process. However we are impelled to raise urgent concerns about the current direction the project is taking. While some enthusiasm remains and good work is happening in localities, faith in the national process is leaking away. Unless immediate steps are taken to ensure transparency, accountability and real democracy, the credibility of the whole project is at risk.

• Leadership and governance. There has been no clarity over who the Interim Executive is, how they were appointed, or to whom they are accountable. This lack of transparency undermines the party’s founding promise of openness. This unknown group should be replaced by a wider, more representative body.
• Finances and data. The change of the Party’s bank account has not been explained, and no information has been shared about how funds are being managed. The same is true of data. Members deserve full financial transparency and control of their data. Again, this demands that responsibility is in the hands of a group representing the whole potential membership.
• Membership. There is ongoing confusion around the membership system, with difficulties migrating those who joined via one portal to another that opened a few days later. No reliable membership figures have been issued, leaving members uncertain about the real strength of the organisation.
• Regional structures and delegates. There is no clear process for how regions will be organised or how members will be represented in decision-making. Without democratic, delegate-based structures at this level, members are excluded from shaping the party.
• Regional Assemblies: Whilst it is welcome that all members will be invited to the regional assemblies, the process of 1000-1500 people amending documents will be unmanageable and leaves the final drafting process to the same unaccountable Executive.
• The launch conference. The current plan to hold four half-day sessions with different randomly selected participants will exclude members and make meaningful discussion impossible. Reducing policy decisions to online voting and “refining sessions” is no substitute for open debate and accountability. A full process of democratic debate is required, organised by a conference arrangements committee representative of all those who will take part.

Taken together, these issues present a picture of a closed process that is business as usual rather than the democratic renewal we were promised. If the new party is to succeed, it cannot repeat the failings of the old parties where decisions are stitched up behind closed doors and members left to rubber-stamp outcomes.

• Publication of who holds leadership positions, how they were chosen, and how they can be held accountable and replaced. 
• A clear, democratic process for regional structures, including the election of delegates and sharing of appropriate data to enable local groups to organise events, meetings and assemblies.
• Establishment of a truly representative conference arrangements committee.
• Transparency on finances and membership numbers.
• A commitment to the principle of one-member-one-vote decision-making, based on a delegate system with open debate and voting as the bedrock of all decision making including questions of leadership.

The choice before us is clear. Either the new party becomes a genuinely democratic, grassroots organisation owned by its members, or it will fall into the same patterns of control and exclusion that people joined to escape. For the sake of all those who are investing their hope, energy and commitment in the project, we urge you to choose democracy.


8 October 2025


Eric Barnes, Mike Forster, Ian Hodson, Ken Loach, Ben Sellers, Audrey White, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi