Zarah Sultana has said she will call off legal action in a move of reconciliation in her bitter feud with Jeremy Corbyn over their fledgling party.
The MP shared a statement on Sunday which acknowledged that people felt “demoralised” after the row over her push for members to sign up to Your Party, the political outfit she established with Mr Corbyn.
Ms Sultana, who had claimed she faced a “sexist boys’ club”, said she was “determined to reconcile” and was in talks with Mr Corbyn.
“For the sake of the party, and as an act of good faith, I will not be pursuing legal proceedings despite the baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against me,” she wrote in a statement posted on X. “Fascism is growing at the door. The stakes are too high for failure to be an option.”
She also said: “I know many people are feeling demoralised – I share that feeling. We find ourselves in a regrettable situation, but my motivation has always been to ensure the collective strength of our movement, put members first and build the genuinely democratic conference and socialist party we so urgently need.
“I am determined to reconcile and move forward. I am engaged in ongoing discussions with Jeremy, for whom, like all socialists of my generation, I have nothing but respect.”
On Friday Ms Sultana said she had instructed “specialist defamation lawyers” after she was “the subject of a number of false and defamatory statements” about her launch of the membership system.
It came after a message encouraging supporters of the outfit to sign up was disowned as an “unauthorised email” by Mr Corbyn. As the row escalated, the party said it had reported itself to the UK’s data protection watchdog and claimed a “false membership system has been unilaterally launched”.
Ms Sultana said she took the step because she had been “sidelined” and “effectively frozen out” by Mr Corbyn and fellow independent MPs Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Mohammed and Shockat Adam.
The Coventry South MP added: “Unfortunately I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys’ club: I have been treated appallingly and excluded completely.”
The party said the developments were a “blow for everyone who has put their hope in a real alternative” and that Ms Sultana “has not been excluded from any discussions”.
Your Party, which is yet to decide on an official name, was seen as a potential challenger to Labour, Reform UK and the Green Party. More than 750,000 supporters signed up since its launch earlier this year under the placeholder name of Your Party, according to Ms Sultana.
