How young people feel about Corbyn’s new left-wing party

In early July, ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced her intention to form a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn. Writing on X, Corbyn confirmed his role in the new movement. “Real change is coming,” he wrote, expressing his admiration for Sultana’s “principled” decision to leave Labour and help build “a real alternative”. He continued: “The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape. Discussions are ongoing – and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.”

Despite some blowback from the Starmer-simping centre and the pearl-clutching right (The Telegraph described the new party as an “extremist alliance between terrorist-supporting Islamists and the hard-Left”), recent polling suggests that there is an obvious appetite for the new party: according to YouGov, one in six Brits say they are likely to consider voting for a new party led by Jeremy Corbyn. This rises to a sizable 36 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds – unsurprisingly, given that young Brits are increasingly left-wing.

With Labour continuing to stray further from their socialist origins and pander to the right, many young people are hungry for proper progressivism in politics. “Labour are continually going down bad paths with their politics and their choices,” says 27-year-old Matt. “What have Labour been in the headlines for recently?” asks 27-year-old Nia*. “Slashing benefits for disabled people and declaring non-violent protesters terrorists. I’m out.” Dr Dan Evans, a sociologist at Swansea University and author of A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, believes that “launching while Labour is weak and desperately unpopular” is a savvy move. “No time like the present,” he says.

What have Labour been in the headlines for recently? Slashing benefits for disabled people and declaring non-violent protesters terrorists

While Reform have succeeded in winning over some disillusioned voters by branding themselves as the new ‘radical’ option – the political equivalent of pressing “a big button with fuck off on it”, as Adam Curtis would put it – it’s evident that many others have been longing for a left-wing alternative, like 26-year-old Barnaby. “Things are broken in the UK and people are willing to look outside the two-party system for a solution – hence the rise of Reform,” he says. Tara, 26, feels similarly. “There’s a huge number of voters like myself who’ve been looking for someone to vote for,” she says. “I think now is the best time for a left-wing alternative.”

While the party has no concrete policies yet, it’s fair to assume that they’ll campaign on issues that both Sultana and Corbyn have been outspoken about for years. “I think the policies they will focus on are staples like taxing the rich, public service investment, and Gaza,” suggests Dr Evans.

For many young people, it’s particularly important that politicians continue to sound the alarm on Gaza. “I’m excited to see a party that is led by two people that I morally agree with – Jeremy and Zarah are two of the most prominent people [within the UK pro-Palestinian movement],” says 26-year-old Lily*. Nia adds that she believes the new party has come at the perfect time. “After the proscription of Palestine Action there was this huge groundswell of anger [...] this is proof that politicians can run on a left-wing, pro-Palestine, pro-immigrant platform.” She hopes Corbyn and Sultana will pledge to “end arms sales to Israel, back right of return for Palestinian refugees, and enforce heavy economic and diplomatic sanctions on Israel.”

Lily and Nia aren’t alone in wanting politicians to be vocal and unequivocal about Israel’s genocide in Gaza: at the 2024 election, four pro-Palestine independents, whose campaigns focused heavily on the war in Gaza, succeeded in beating Labour rivals (another, Leanne Mohamad, came incredibly close to unseating Wes Streeting). Corbyn, who was also vocal about Gaza during his campaign, also won a landslide victory as an independent after he was banned from standing as a Labour candidate by Keir Starmer.

In terms of domestic policies, many are hoping that the new party will offer something truly left-wing and pledge to put the many before the few. “The poorest and most vulnerable in our country are constantly being taken from,” Tara says. “We’re meant to pay taxes so that our society can flourish [...] We’ve lost sight of the fact that our government is responsible for looking after people.” This chimes with 24-year-old Owain, who hopes Corbyn and Sultana will push for a wealth tax. “There’s this huge myth that there’s this exodus of millionaires happening in the UK right now, but it’s complete nonsense,” he says. “People forget that people who are really rich are rich because they own things which exist in this country… so if they leave, it doesn’t matter.”

Many also want to see health and social care made a priority. For 27-year-old Hannah, who works in the NHS, change can’t come soon enough. “There are so many conditions and issues that could be completely preventable if there was better education in schools and better health and social care in the community,” she says. “Welfare is so important too – I deal with so many vulnerable people who need it to survive and heal from the conditions that bring them into hospital.”

To be successful, the model has to be Corbyn 2017 – very insurgent, anti-establishment, counter-cultural, rooted in young people

The list of issues goes on: housing, trans rights, the environment, immigration, nationalisation of essential services, better investment in public services, etc, etc. It’s clear that young people are hankering for change, and are hopeful that this new left-wing party can deliver. But they’ve been burnt before, and their optimism is tempered with realism. “My worry is that the progressive vote will be split because of our broken system of voting,” says 31-year-old Kate, stressing that she would love to see the UK’s electoral system reformed. “[Proportional representation] is the only way out of this mess. It’s the only way to have the needs of the public actually represented.”

Still, Kate is choosing to be cautiously optimistic for now. “There is no mainstream party right now that prioritises preservation of humanity – that extends from ending genocides all over the world, to ending the hate that the LGBTQ community and particularly trans people are facing, to ending austerity, to ending poverty, to ending injustice,” she says. “That sounds very idealistic, but the bar is in hell. So any improvement would be welcome, compared to the absolute shitshow that we are witnessing currently.” Dr Evans himself is hopeful, suggesting that if they target the right people – “people currently alienated by Labour” – then he expects the party to pick up a fair few seats. “To be successful, the model has to be Corbyn 2017 – very insurgent, anti-establishment, counter-cultural, rooted in young people,” he says.

We’re yet to see just what Corbyn and Sultana do, but at the very least, there’s finally some cause for optimism in this bleak, bleak climate. As Corbyn himself put it: “Together we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.”