A Weekend of Drama and Decision in Liverpool
In a political year dominated by Labour and Reform, a new player, Your Party, has quietly been staging its own compelling drama. This past weekend, the four-month-old party held its inaugural conference at the ACC on Liverpool's King's Dock, an event that laid bare the profound internal tensions and ambitious spirit defining this fledgling movement.
The conference, which took place over the last weekend of November 2025, was a significant organisational achievement, drawing hundreds of supporters to a major venue complete with professional branding. Yet, beneath the surface of this impressive gathering, the party was grappling with deep-seated factionalism and very public disputes between its most prominent figures.
Factions, Food and Echo Chambers
The atmosphere at the ACC was starkly different from the Labour conference held there just months prior. Where Labour's main hall buzzed with trade union and charity stalls, Your Party's space was notably empty. A couple of food stalls offered sustenance, including a £9 vegan scouse, but the vast hall primarily served as an echo chamber for the passionate debates happening on the main stage.
Outside the building, the real political intrigue unfolded. Various left-wing groups braved the Merseyside chill to distribute pamphlets questioning the convictions of the party's own leaders. Most tellingly, co-founder Zarah Sultana, who boycotted the first day over a dispute concerning members of other socialist groups, was never seen interacting with her fellow co-founder, Jeremy Corbyn, throughout the entire weekend.
Democracy and Disruption on the Stage
The core purpose of the conference was to decide the fundamental identity of Your Party. In a radical democratic exercise, randomly selected members were invited to argue for and against policy proposals on stage. Passions ran extraordinarily high, with speakers yelling into microphones and deliberately provoking the chairwoman.
The tension escalated to the point where the chairwoman told off the rowdy audience, referencing her childhood visits to her father in the notorious Evin prison and stating, "I am not scared of you, you do not scare me." The live feed was repeatedly cut as furious members demanded their right to speak, a level of chaos unseen at more established political gatherings.
By Sunday lunchtime, the factionalism had reached almost farcical levels, with reports that Sultana's supporters, having already split from Corbyn's, had split again over a row concerning the party's constitution.
Resolving the Basics Amidst the Chaos
Despite the infighting, the conference succeeded in making several foundational decisions. In a dramatic reveal just before his closing speech, Jeremy Corbyn announced the result of a four-way vote on the party's name. To the ecstasy of the crowd, he declared, "Your Party is the name of Your Party," making official the slightly confusing moniker it had used informally.
The other options, Progressive Alliance, For The Many, and Our Party, received approximately 25%, 23%, and 14% of the vote respectively. In another significant move, the party voted to adopt a brand-new collective leadership model by a narrow margin of 51.6% to 49.4%, meaning neither Corbyn nor Sultana would become the sole leader.
The conference concluded with a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine," its plea for an end to conflict leaving attendees to wonder if the message was aimed at the world or the people in the room. With its basic identity now established, Your Party faces a long road ahead, needing to navigate its internal splits, the rise of rival left-wing parties, and the day-to-day challenges of political life.
