Corbyn and Sultana treat us to a lefty Pythonesque farce

Zarah Sultana’s website said: “We’re building a new kind of political party.

- JOHN RENTOUL

” How unexpectedly true that claim turned out to be.

“Join one half of a party that has split before it is launched,” the website did not go on to say. “Choose your faction and take up arms against an internal enemy provided as one of the benefits of membership.”

The split in Jeremy Corbyn’s new left-wing party resembles a Monty Python farce. It is hard not to find it amusing, given the eccentric bunch of figures involved. On Tuesday, Sultana announced that the “inaugural founding conference” of the new party would be in November, and yesterday invited supporters to sign up - £55, or £5 concession - to enter a lottery to be chosen to attend this historic event.

Hours later, Corbyn put out an “urgent message” to all supporters telling them to ignore an “unauthorised email” sent out that morning. “Legal advice is being taken,” he said. “If any direct debits have been set up, they should be immediately cancelled.”

Between them, Sultana and Corbyn managed to make the launch of a socialist party look like a crypto phishing scam.