What 500,000 Sign-Ups Really Means for Jeremy Corbyn’s New Party

Half a Million Have Answered the Call. The Labour Party Should Be Terrified.

There are moments in politics when the ground shifts. Not just those small incremental changes, but considerable changes in how people think and vote. For example, the last election saw Gaza unseat Labour loyalists in red strongholds such as Blackburn and Leicester South, with independent Asian MPs now proudly representing those most working-class of areas. A defiant finger to those who assume Reform has the working class locked down. Yet, that is not to ignore Reform as another of those shifts, as widespread dissatisfaction with mainstream politics comes from all sides.

So too, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party marks such a ground shift. With a working title of “Your Party,” there is currently no political slogan bandied about, no official policies announced, and no manifesto. And yet, 500,000 people registered an interest in the party in little over 72 hours—interest based on hope for something better.

Now, let's be clear. These are not paying members, though many will certainly have donated. But they are not nothing either. In terms of the current field in British politics, these numbers are phenomenal.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

No established political party, big or small, has generated the enthusiasm seen with Your Party in such a small space of time. Let’s look at the facts:

• Labour Party: 309,000 members (and falling)

• Reform UK: 220,000 members

• Conservatives: 132,000 members

• Liberal Democrats: 90,000 members

• Green Party: 65,000 members

• Your Party (interested): 500,000 sign-ups

Even if a very conservative 25% of those interested went on to join the party, that would immediately place Your Party just behind the Tories with 125,000 members. These are absolutely unheard of numbers for a party that has yet to officially launch. If that number was 50%, then Your Party would be chomping at Labour’s heels with 250,000 members.

The potential is enormous. And what’s more, it’s organic. No celebrity launch. No major TV interview. No tabloid-grabbing illiterate rants. Just trust, anger, and hope. And it matters.

Why a Large Membership Matters

Even if only 100,000 people go the whole way and pay £3 a month for their membership, that's £3.6m of revenue a year to fund the party. Enough for organisers, campaigns, events, and infrastructure, all without having to rely on big personal donors or corporate money, who will always want something in return. Likewise, the number of members gives the party literal manpower. Boots on the ground to be canvassers, local organisers, content creators, and social media advocates. These are the backbone of any party—the grassroots who inspire others to learn more about the party and get out and vote.

However, perhaps the most important aspect of those numbers would be legitimacy. It's easy for the media and other parties to dismiss smaller parties as “fringe groups,” but that isn’t the case for a party with hundreds of thousands of members. And that legitimacy extends not only to the general public and the media but also to parliament and the unions.

The Unions are still affiliated with Labour, but not out of love. They stay because it’s what they’ve always done, and there is no better option, even while Starmer scraps workers' rights pledges and suppresses left-wing voices. If the new party can build a serious base, unions will face pressure to shift their political funds accordingly. Even just one or two of the major unions shifting their affiliation would be a seismic shift that would leave Labour in serious financial peril at a time when its membership is falling.

Likewise, the legitimacy of a large membership and likely electoral success will draw the eyes of independent and Labour MPs. While it seems likely that the Independent Alliance of MPs led by Jeremy Corbyn will form the early backbone of Your Party, there will also be defections if the party shows it's a legitimate force. For all its toxicity, reform has succeeded in attracting multiple Conservative MPs. Why? Because MPs are, for the most part, a self-serving species who will swing whatever way the wind is blowing, and on the right, the wind is blowing firmly toward Reform.

If the new party can show it’s not a flash in the pan, gaining members, gaining traction, and having polling relevance, then its presence in parliament will only grow.

• Labour leftists under pressure from the right

• Those personally victimised by Starmer’s authoritarianism

• Disillusioned former MPs looking for re-entry

• Young councillors are tired of Labour’s vapid right-wing messaging

The Socialist Campaign Group within Labour has come under much criticism for its frequent silence and its members (those who aren’t suspended, anyway) remaining within the Labour Party. However, their ineffectiveness makes sense once you understand that they’re as self-serving as any other MPs. Once a viable second option exists, their loyalty to Labour will dissolve overnight. It would certainly make watching Keir Starmer’s authoritarian handling of MP discipline interesting.

Pro-Palestinian rally | Matt Brown, Flickr, CC BY 2.0

The Beginning of the End for Labour

The Labour Party under Keir Starmer is haemorrhaging members. Between the 2024 General Election and February 2025 alone, Labour lost over 39,000 members, according to internal party figures. That's an 11% drop in just months and doesn’t include the many members who left before the election.

Why? Because Starmer’s right-wing project, often straying into far-right territory, no longer represents the tens of thousands of members who joined and rejoined the Corbyn Labour Party. Where once there were pledges to end austerity, nationalise key services, and confront human rights abuses, now there’s silence or, worse, outright support for these policies: Austerity-lite, pro-business rhetoric, and unquestioning loyalty to the United States and Israel. Just yesterday, the cowardly Starmer couldn’t even bring himself to defend his own London Mayor Sadiq Khan when Donald Trump went on a rant in the Prime Minister’s presence.

But then, did we expect otherwise? This is a man who dismissed Black Lives Matter as “a moment,” has regularly suspended POC from his party, particularly women, and publicly backed Zionism, an ideology based on racial supremacy lest we forget that the Forde Report found that “structural racism” existed within the party and that Black and Asian MPs, members, and staffers had been undermined, sidelined, and racially stereotyped by staff hostile to Corbyn.

The left didn’t leave Labour. Labour left the left.

So, What Happens Next?

The 500,000 figure isn’t just a number. It represents half a million people who are looking for something new, and, at the same time, something taken from them. The teachers are sick of working for low pay. The renters are exploited by the housing crisis. The young people who see hope dying. The compassionate are sickened by this country's support for Israel. The victims of constant racism.

It is a mass of people who once believed we could be something better. People who had their hope snatched away by Keir Starmer and his right-wing cabal. They never went away; they were waiting for something real to return.

The party's backbone will undoubtedly be young people, with Corbyn massively more popular than Starmer. With the voting age being lowered to 16 (watch Starmer backtrack), this demographic will only grow in power. For them, Corbyn isn’t a scandal or a headline. He’s the only politician who talked about rent, Gaza, climate, tuition fees, and mental health without sounding like a robot.

Everyone remembers the enthusiasm amongst the Corbyn grassroots, which will no doubt exist again. But turning that momentum (no pun intended) into a political force will require:

• A clear, distinct, socialist policy platform

• A democratic structure with genuine grassroots power

• Candidates who aren’t just symbolic, but electable and bold

• Money, logistics, and on-the-ground organising

With the level of interest already gained, all this is more than possible. And, what’s more, it's been done before. When Corbyn became Labour leader, he walked into a centrist establishment. Five hundred thousand supporters joined the party, and momentum was built from scratch. The idea that a new party couldn’t organise in time is nonsense. It already happened. The only difference now is that this time, there’s no internal sabotage to slow it down.

The best scenario for what will happen is the same thing that happened with the “pink tide” in Latin America, where the principles of 21st-century socialism inspired mass coalitions of different marginalised groups such as workers, Indigenous communities, students, feminists, and the rural poor, all uniting around a vision of dignity, redistribution, and sovereignty. In countries like Bolivia, the rise of Evo Morales and the MAS party wasn’t just about one leader but building political power from below, with a grassroots movement that spoke to people’s material realities and cultural identities. Morales didn’t win through elite spin; he won by mobilising coca farmers, Indigenous trade unions, and anti-imperialist youth behind a shared agenda. If “Your Party” becomes a youth-driven insurgency with local organisers, social media savvy, and a bold moral message, it could replicate that model, not as a copy, but as a localised expression of the same principle: that the people abandoned by the mainstream can become the majority when they organise together.

If Corbyn, Sultana, and the party they’re building can stay focused, transparent, and radical, then we may be witnessing something rare: A genuinely working-class, democratic, internationalist left-wing party being born.

It could redefine the left for a generation, and now imagine what happens when those 500,000 people don’t just sign up... but show up.

---

Red Resurgence is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

And, please do share!