MP Zarah Sultana who was ousted from Labour announces she is starting new political party with Jeremy Corbyn

An MP who was ousted from the Labour Party has announced she is setting up a new political party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Independent MP Zarah Sultana said she and the former Labour leader will co-lead the new party, which she did not provide a name for.

She said other independent MPs, campaigners and activists from across the country will join them, but did not name anyone.

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Ms Sultana also said she was "resigning" from the Labour Party after 14 years.

She was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer for voting against the government maintaining the two-child benefit cap.

Several others from the left of the party were also suspended for voting against the government, and also remained as independent MPs.

Ms Sultana was still a member of the Labour Party - until now.

Mr Corbyn told ITV on Wednesday that independent MPs would "come together" to provide an "alternative" party which will be about "a society that deals with poverty, inequality and a foreign policy based on peace not war"

The other four independents are: Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain.

Mr Corbyn and the other four independents have not said if they are part of the new party Ms Sultana announced.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Corbyn's former adviser James Schneider said his phone had been "exploding with people being extremely excited" about a "home for progressive politics in this country".

Asked about whether the former Labour leader will be joining the party - or was even aware of what was happening - Mr Schneider says: "I mean, the party hasn't yet been launched when it is launched, everybody I'm sure will be hearing from everybody, and I'm sure you'll hear from Jeremy."

In her announcement, Ms Sultana said she would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap again and also voted against scrapping the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.

Ms Sultana also voted against the government's welfare bill this week, which was heavily watered down as Sir Keir Starmer tried to prevent a major rebellion from his own MPs.

On Wednesday, Ms Sultana spoke passionately against Palestine Action being proscribed as a terror organisation - but MPs eventually voted for it to be put into law.

She said to proscribe it is "a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth".

The MP also shouted: "We are all Palestine Action."

Ms Sultana said they were founding the new party because "Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper - just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population".

She called Reform leader Nigel Farage "a billionaire-backed grifter" leading the polls "because Labour has completely failed to improve people's lives".

The MP signed the letter off with: "In 2029, the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism.

"Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them. It's time the rest of us had one.

"Join us. The time is now."

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The MP, who has spoken passionately about Gaza, also said in her letter: "Across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.

"But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.

"We are not going to take this anymore."

Speaking to Sky News, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Ms Sultana has "always taken a very different view to most people in the government on a lot of different things".

Ms Cooper said she "strongly disagrees" with Ms Sultana that the government is failing to help people out of poverty.

"We're one year on from the Labour government being elected and as the prime minister said a year ago that change doesn't happen at the flick of a switch, but it starts straightaway," the home secretary said.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: "In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

"Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain."

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