Your Party, the leftwing party steered by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, says it is preparing legal action against a group of its own founders after a final deadline to hand over at least £800,000 in donations passed without payment, the Guardian understands.
Figures close to the party accused directors of MoU Operations Ltd (MoU) of having “gone rogue”, holding supporters’ funds to ransom and undermining its founding process “despite direct pleas from Jeremy and Zarah”.
Party insiders say they “reluctantly” agreed to initiate legal proceedings after “exhausting every possible alternative” to recover the money still held by the directors of MoU.
MoU is run by Andrew Feinstein, the anti-apartheid activist who ran as an independent candidate in Keir Starmer’s constituency; Jamie Driscoll, the former North of Tyne mayor; and Beth Winter, the former Labour MP for Cynon Valley. The three helped shape the movement’s early structure before relations broke down.
The latest row threatens to overshadow and affect the party’s first national conference in Liverpool next month, where members are due to approve a draft constitution and elect a 21-member executive. One person close to the conference planning process warned the party could be forced to invite fewer delegates because of the lack of funds and data.
Related: Your Party sets out constitution plans including new year leadership contest
The £800,000 pot, currently held by MoU, was amassed from membership donations to the party from early July, after Sultana’s unilateral announcement that she and Corbyn were “co-leaders”, to 17 September, the Guardian has been told.
Sources close to the party directors say an agreement was signed in July and referenced Your Party’s original privacy policy, in which MoU was meant to hold the money and data only until the party was formally registered, and then transfer it to the new entity. The party was formally registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September, yet funds remain in MoU’s account. The Guardian has seen a screenshot of Your Party’s original privacy policy, which was only valid until the party was registered.
The MoU directors have been accused by sources of refusing to transfer the pot of donations and membership data, despite repeatedly committing to do so and being legally obliged to do so.
Party insiders say the deadline for the final transfer had passed on Friday night, prompting the decision to pursue legal action.
The dispute also covers the control of thousands of supporters’ data collected during a unilateral and unauthorised launch of a membership portal on 18 September. Sultana invited supporters to sign up to the portal on X, with a link to a website styled as Your Party’s official portal but hosted on a separate domain. Sources close to the party note the site listed MoU as the data controller and routed payments to its bank account.
The launch of that portal – shared and retweeted on X by Driscoll and Feinstein – prompted Your Party to refer itself to the information commissioner’s office. The investigation continues.
Related: Corbyn and Sultana have a half-formed party with huge potential, and our politics needs it | Andy Beckett
Lawyers have advised Your Party directors not to take ownership of MoU because of potential liabilities connected to the portal’s launch, leaving legal action as the last route.
The fight highlights the deep fractures within the party that was pitched as a fresh start for Britain’s left after being “sealed in a tomb” when inside Labour.
Since the unauthorised portal launch last month, which resulted in more than 20,000 sign-ups, members have been offered three months’ free membership if they re-register on a new website. But organisers are not able to contact them because they have had no access to their identities.
In a statement to the Guardian, Driscoll, Winter and Feinstein said: “These allegations are factually incorrect and frankly nonsense. We will make a full statement when we have time, but none of us are paid politicians with press officers.”
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