A trio of independent Lancashire county councillors have said they will join the new political party being founded by Jeremy Corbyn.
The three Preston representatives – who are members of the official opposition at County Hall – have signed up to the movement, which will sit firmly on the Left of the political spectrum.
The former Labour Party leader, together with fellow ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana, announced the new entity, provisionally known as ‘Your Party’, last month.
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County Cllrs Michael Lavalette (Preston Central), former Labour veteran Yousuf Motala (Preston City) and Almas Razakazi (Preston South East) have declared their intention to become part of it.
County Cllr Razakazi said the new party “aligns” with the values that the Preston Independents, as they are known, campaigned on in the run-up to the local elections in May – and so is not a departure from the principles which persuaded people to vote for them a matter of months ago.
“We stood on [a policy of] ‘welfare not warfare’ – to improve social housing, put more money into the NHS and stop [funding] wars [with] money that can be used in our communities,” she explained.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal that the move will not affect Progressive Lancashire, the largest opposition group at Lancashire County Council, which is forged from an alliance between all seven independents who sit on the authority and its four Green Party members.
The contingent is led by former Labour group leader on the county council, Azhar Ali (Nelson East), who said that although he has no current plans to join Your Party, the decision of the Preston Independents to do so would have no bearing on the opposition arrangement.
“Politics is changing – people are looking for parties other than two established ones,” County Cllr Ali said.
He added that while he valued the “flexibility” of being an independent, the structure of the new party was as yet unknown – and might yet allow for similar free thinking.
County Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, another ex-Labour member who now sits as an independent for Brierfield and Nelson West, told the LDRS he had “signed up to be kept informed” about the new party – which is expected to formally launch at a conference later this year – and “will consider joining once further details are known”.
The county council’s two other independents – County Cllrs Usman Arif (Burnley North East) and Maheen Kamran (Burnley Central East) – were both approached for comment.
Meanwhile, Green Party group leader Gina Dowding – who is the deputy leader of Progressive Lancashire – said the shift by the Preston Independents did not affect the opposition alliance’s commitment to “working together based on common interests and values”.
However, she added that her independent colleagues – and anybody else mulling a move to Mr. Corbyn’s movement – should “look at the Green Party manifesto first”.
“They might find over 90 percent of what they are attracted to is already part of [our programme],” County Cllr Dowding said.
A local organising meeting about Your Party was held in Preston earlier this week.
The LDRS understands around 120 people attended the event at Catherine Beckett Hall on Tuesday, during which discussions were held in small groups about what the party’s local and national priorities should be – and what name would best encapsulate its aims.
Jeremy Corbyn himself is expected to visit Lancashire at the end of the month to stage a county rally for his new party.
‘The anti-establishment is coming’
‘Your Party’ says more than 700,000 people have signed up to receive information about it via an online form that went live last month.
It is billing itself as “a new kind of political party – one that belongs to you”.
Announcing their plans, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana said they wanted to fight injustices.
County Cllr Razakazi says that is a message she believes will resonate in Preston and might pack more of a punch with the power of a party behind it than when articulated by individual independent candidates – effective as that strategy was for her and her colleagues in May.
“[During the local election campaign], I spoke to everyone on the doorstep as a working class person who just wanted to represent their communities.
“We’re only going to break through by having those individual conversations…but to put it in a blunt way, [a party] gives you more clout. If you have their backing, it gives people more faith in you
“Also, it can’t be [forgotten] how grassroots our campaign was [as independents] – we were literally doing everything. So if we had the backing of a national party, just having a little bit more money to advertise in terms of a campaign [would help],” County Cllr Razakazi added.
However, she said it was important to stress that the Preston Independents were “not joining a party to become part of the establishment – I want something anti-establishment”.
County Cllr Yousuf Motala, who quit Labour in November 2023 because of the national party’s stance on the war in Gaza – having sat as a Labour member of Lancashire County Council for almost 15 years – says his reason for joining Your Party can be summed up in two words: Jeremy Corbyn.
“I fully supported [him] when he was leader of the Labour Party and felt that he had a great understanding of issues affecting local people – and I also feel that he would have been more sensitive, particularly on issues such as the cost-of-living crisis [and supporting] pensioners, the disabled and vulnerable people.
“He has been a strong advocate for Palestine and peace in the region, which the current Labour Party leader and his cabinet members have been dragging their feet on – not doing enough to stop Israel’s strategy of ethnic cleansing,” County Cllr Motala claimed.
The Israeli government says it is targeting the terrorists of Hamas – responsible for the October 7th attack on the country in which around 1,200 people were killed and 200 taken hostage – and not civilians in Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 Gazans have been killed by Israel over the past 22 months, many of them women and children.
Meanwhile, County Cllr Michael Lavalette says there is plenty to appeal to people in Lancashire about Your Party, on both domestic and global issues – and how the two intertwine.
“This is a party that will put the interests of ordinary people first. We want to put money into welfare, not warfare.
“We need investment in public services, a council house building programme, renationalisation of public utilities, like railways and waterways – and we need to address the huge inequality crisis in this country.
“It can’t be right that the richest 1,000 people in this country have more wealth than that of the poorest 50 percent,” County Cllr Lavalette said.
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