Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are working on the creation of a “Farage assistance party”, Neil Kinnock has said.
The former Labour leader said left-wingers Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana would “only assist the enemies of Labour” by forming a breakaway challenger party.
Lord Kinnock said that division on the left “can only assist the parties of the right”, including Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Asked how much of a threat he thought any new party could be, after Mr Corbyn suggested that discussions were underway, Lord Kinnock said: “I understand they are having a bit of difficulty over thinking of a name.
“In a comradely way, I’d suggest one. It would be the Farage assistance group.”
Lord Kinnock added: “The splintering offered by a new party of the left can only be of assistance to the enemies of Labour, of the working class – the people who have no means of sustaining themselves other than the sale of their labour by hand and by brain – and can only be of benefit to the egos of those who are running such a party.”
His comments come after Ms Sultana said on Thursday she would co-lead a new party with Mr Corbyn aimed at tackling poverty and inequality and opposing war.
Mr Corbyn, who led Labour to its worst general election defeat in decades in 2019, appeared to have been wrong-footed by Ms Sultana’s announcement, however.
In a non-committal statement, the independent Islington MP said: “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.”
It emerged on Sunday that Mr Corbyn’s top team had repeatedly urged Ms Sultana to walk back the announcement, and even asked her to delete it once he had seen it. The Sunday Times reported that Mr Corbyn’s wife, Laura Alvarez, also urged Ms Sultana to delete social media posts unveiling the new venture, but was ignored.
Messages seen by the paper show that Pamela Fitzpatrick, a co-director at Mr Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, said in a group chat: “Neither Jeremy nor Laura deserves to be treated with such a lack of respect.”
Asked about the challenger party, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said “some of those involved checked out of the Labour Party quite a long time ago”.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that Labour would be judged on the difference they “make to people’s lives” come the next election, when asked whether she was worried about a party to the left of the government.
“I think when it comes to the formation of a new party, some of those involved, I think checked out [of] the Labour Party quite a long time ago,” said Ms Phillipson.
“Now it’s for them to forge their way forward.”
Lord Kinnock also said Labour’s first year in government has been “obscured” by rows over issues such as welfare spending.
He said Sir Keir Starmer has lacked a narrative and failed to tell “a story of the objectives of the government and where they’re working towards it and how they’re working towards it”.
“They are working towards it with a series of really commendable and absolutely essential policies,” he said.
But Lord Kinnock added: “They are barely noticed because they’re obscured by all the song and dance and noise, drums banging and cymbals clashing of the winter fuel payment… the welfare programme, the two-child benefit cap, the cuts in development aid, all those negative things that really are heartily disliked across the Labour movement and more widely, much more widely.”
Warnings about the new challenger party come after polling conducted by More in Common last month – well before Ms Sultana unveiled the plans about how the public would vote if a left-leaning party led by Mr Corbyn emerged.
The hypothetical scenario saw 10 per cent of voters say they would back the party, taking three points from Labour, four points from the Greens, one point from the Lib Dems and one point from the SNP. Labour was left with 20 per cent support, neck and neck with the Tories, while Reform UK was on 27 per cent.
Unveiling the planned party, Ms Sultana confirmed her resignation from Labour and announced plans to co-lead the new party alongside Mr Corbyn and “other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”.
She had been sitting as an independent MP despite being a Labour member after losing the whip for rebelling against the government’s King’s Speech.
“Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper,” she said, warning that the “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”.
The MP added: “A year ago, I was suspended by the Labour Party for voting to abolish the two-child benefit cap and lift 400,000 children out of poverty.
“I’d do it again. I voted against scrapping winter fuel payments for pensioners. I’d do it again.
“Now, the government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”
