Jeremy Corbyn today claimed nearly 200,000 people have already signed up to his new party within just 24 hours.
The former Labour leader has launched a new outfit with Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, who quit Labour earlier this month in order to push ahead with the venture.
Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana’s movement has the website yourparty.uk, with a welcome message saying ‘this is your party’.
But Ms Sultana immediately sowed confusion by insisting a name had not yet been chosen. She frantically posted on social media: ‘It’s not called Your Party.’
Officials said ‘Your Party’ was an interim name to kickstart a democratic process to decide on the new party’s eventual title.
Government ministers who used to sit alongside Mr Corbyn in the House of Commons mocked the ‘chaotic’ launch of the veteran MP’s new party.
Yet Mr Corbyn shrugged off the criticism and said there had been an ‘enormous’ response to the launch.
Speaking during a visit to a bin strike picket line in Birmingham on Friday morning, he claimed thousands had already flocked to the new outfit.
Jeremy Corbyn claimed nearly 200,000 people have already signed up to his new party within just 24 hours
Speaking during a visit to a bin strike picket line in Birmingham on Friday morning, Mr Corbyn claimed thousands had already flocked to the new outfit
The former Labour leader has launched a new outfit with Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, who quit Labour earlier this month in order to push ahead with the venture
Mr Corbyn told journalists: ‘The launch is Yourparty.uk and so far, as of the last minute or two, 175,000 people had signed up for it, which is enormous.’
As his comments to reporters came to a close, Mr Corbyn was informed that 190,000 people had registered their interest in the party,
‘Another 15,000 have signed while we were talking,’ he added.
Mr Corbyn was asked what the new party would do about situations like the long-running Birmingham bin strike if it won power.
He replied: ‘We would look obviously at the situation of Birmingham city finances.
‘But insist that no worker’s wages go down and you restructure the finances accordingly.’
Earlier, a Cabinet minister said ‘the chaotic Jeremy Corbyn’ does not ‘think about governing, he thinks about posturing’ in an attack on the former Labour leader.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told Times Radio: ‘I was an MP in the Labour Party when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
‘And the chaos and instability that he brought to our party I’m now viewing him wreak in his new party.
‘I’m just very glad that I’m looking on it from the outside this time, rather than having to experience it from the inside.’
Mr Kyle, who campaigned for Mr Corbyn to become prime minister at the 2017 and 2019 general elections, said the veteran left-winger was ‘not a serious politician’.
He added: ‘The thing that worries me the most about what he says is that he doesn’t want to spend money defending our country.
‘He is against the money that Labour is investing into the defence of our country.
‘At the moment, these are the things that should fundamentally worry us about the words of Jeremy Corbyn.
‘He’s not a serious politician. He doesn’t think about governing, he thinks about posturing.’
Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana’s movement has the website yourparty.uk, with a welcome message saying ‘this is your party’
But Ms Sultana immediately sowed confusion by insisting a name had not yet been chosen. She frantically posted on social media: ‘It’s not called Your Party.’
Mr Kyle continued: ‘And you’ve got, you know, they… can’t even agree a name before launching their party.
‘This is the kind of chaotic circumstances that follows Jeremy around like a trail.
‘I never quite understood his leadership, even when I was experiencing it up close, but that’s for them to decide.’
Mr Corbyn denied on Thursday that the launch of his new party had been ‘messy’.
Ms Sultana said she was launching the party with Mr Corbyn earlier this month, but the former Labour leader appeared unready to formally announce the move until Thursday.
‘It’s not messy at all. It’s a totally coherent approach,’ he told reporters. ‘It’s democratic, it’s grassroots and it’s open.’
He also said that he and Ms Sultana are ‘working very well together’.
Asked why it was him alone doing broadcast media to launch the party, and also asked where Ms Sultana was, he said: ‘We’re working absolutely together on this.
‘She happens to be, as far as I know at this moment, in Coventry.
‘I was in touch with her just a few moments ago. So it’s all fine. We’re working very well together, all of us.’
