A week before its founding conference is due to begin in Liverpool, Your Party sees another of its Muslim MPs walk away.
Iqbal Mohamed, the MP for Batley and Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, announced on Friday that he was quitting the party.
His departure comes just days after fellow steering group member Adnan Hussain resigned.
Mohamed wrote on X: ” After careful consideration, I have decided to leave Your Party and continue serving as I was elected as an Independent Member of Parliament for Dewsbury & Batley.
“The many false allegations and smears made against me and others, and reported as fact without evidence, have been surprising and disappointing,” he said.
He added that he will “continue working with my colleagues in the Independent Alliance, which has proven highly effective in advocating for the common good in Parliament over the past eighteen months.”
The Independent Alliance is a parliamentary grouping made up of Mohamed, Hussain, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Latest rupture inside Your Party
Mohamed’s exit marks the latest rupture inside Your Party. Hussain left last week, calling the internal culture “toxic” and hostile towards “Muslim men.”
Hussain said he had become “deeply troubled” by how some members of the steering group spoke about Muslim men, suggesting the rhetoric mirrored prejudices traditionally associated with the political right.
“At times the rhetoric used has been disturbingly similar to the very political forces the left claims to oppose. I witnessed insinuations about capability, dismissive attitudes and language that carried, at the very least, veiled prejudice,” he said.
Hussain and Mohamed’s departure follows months of simmering tension.
In September, co-founder Zarah Sultana faced backlash after she said there was no space in the new party for “socially conservative views” — comments widely seen as aimed at Hussain and other conservative-leaning Muslims.
Your Party attracted huge attention when it launched in July, drawing hundreds of thousands of sign-ups and polling as high as 10% in some national surveys.
But hopes of a major new left-wing force have been overshadowed by infighting and a public fallout between co-leaders Sultana and Corbyn.
Image credit: Iqbal Mohamed ©House of Commons
