With a huge profile and no one to appease, ‘Your Party’ starts on a better footing than new parties of the past
New political parties have a patchy record in British politics. Take Change UK, which launched amid much fanfare in the spring of 2019 and had disbanded by the end of the same year. So can Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana fare any better? In part it depends on the question you ask.
The new and as-yet unnamed leftwing party formally announced by Corbyn and his fellow ex-Labour MP on Thursday, has one major advantage at its disposal: the former Labour leader’s very strong public profile.
According to a rolling YouGov poll of politicians’ name recognition, Corbyn is known by 98% of voters, more than Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage.
“Everyone knows who Jeremy Corbyn is, everyone knows who he stands for. And with any new party, that is not even half the battle. It’s three-quarters of the battle,” said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University.
