A recent gathering at St Denys Social Club saw the Southampton branch of the activist group Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) taking aim at the city’s Labour-run council. SUTR, whose local leadership features Mr Steve Squibs, Jayanti Shah, and Parveen Ishfaq, called out local officials for “failing to do enough” to curtail protests outside the Highfield Hotel asylum hotel. The event featured heavily on the YourParty Southampton Instagram page, comes as the local division of the recently formed leftwing YourParty met to plan its next moves.
SUTR’s public criticism of the Labour Party is notable, given the group’s long-standing alliance with Labour in Southampton. But Labour’s hold on local activists faces new pressures as YourParty—a new left movement founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana grows— but YourParty finds itself mired in an embarrassing public dispute over party finances and their mismanagement. Corbyn has requested that Sultana return funds received from an email sent to members who in good faith signed up to a subscription and donation page not approved by the leadership.
In a blunt statement, Jeremy Corbyn, joined by MPs Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan, and Iqbal Mohamed, revealed that hundreds of thousands of pounds donated to Your Party “by supporters in good faith… have since remained beyond its reach.” The statement, posted on X by an independent alliance of MPs and notably unsigned by Sultana, described the situation as “extremely frustrating and disheartening.”
According to the announcement, only a “small portion” of these funds—reportedly controlled by MOU Operations Ltd, a company set up by the party’s founders—was released to the party last Thursday, far short of what was needed to keep the fledgling organization afloat. “Their efforts are heroic, but without funding Your Party’s capacity has been severely restricted,” the statement read. “We will continue to pursue the immediate transfer of all the money that was donated by supporters to get a new party off the ground, alongside a resolution to outstanding legal issues.”
The row escalated following a Guardian report last week suggesting Zarah Sultana offered to transfer £600,000 from the company’s account, but was rebuffed by Corbyn allies who accused her of “playing political games” with donor money. In total, party officials are seeking the transfer of approximately £800,000 and have threatened legal action if talks stall.
For SUTR, the political wrangling overshadows its grassroots mission. The group is led by disgraced former Labour MP Dianne Abbott, describing her on its website as “President of Stand Up To Racism, [who] has consistently fought racism throughout her time as an MP and received more racism and abuse than any other MP.” Abbott herself has twice been suspended from Labour party, following widely publicised antisemitism and race controversies.
SUTR has weighed in forcefully on recent events at the Highfield House Hotel, issuing a statement that Southampton “has a proud tradition as a welcoming and compassionate city. Yet the ongoing mobilisation of far-right agitators targeting asylum seekers at the Highfield House Hotel has placed that reputation under strain and created a climate of hostility for some of the city’s most vulnerable people.” The group describes intimidating weekly demonstrations by far-right activists as well as earlier incidents, such as the erection of an unauthorised structure in Hoglands Park that went unenforced despite promises of action from the city council. SUTR argues this “inaction has emboldened those attempting to divide our community,” warning that the council’s latest move—proposing dialogue with the protest organisers—risks giving legitimacy to campaigners intent on intimidation rather than “local concern.” The statement points to an expanding pattern of hostility, including anti-gay rhetoric, harassment of pro-Palestine demonstrators, and attempts to disrupt progressive meetings across southern England, framing these not as isolated incidents but part of “an organised attempt to spread fear and division.”
For SUTR, the city council’s response has only aggravated the situation. A recent motion invited both protesters and counter-protesters to meet alongside police and Home Office officials, a step the group called a “false equivalence.” Senior Labour cabinet member Cllr Simon Letts acknowledged in council that “it’s rapidly turning into a series of protests and marches about race and about religion and about ethnicity… a rather nasty group of people [are] trying to divide our city.” Meanwhile, Conservative councillors focused critique on the logistics of protest locations, rather than condemning what SUTR describes as “far-right racism and intimidation at the heart of the problem.” SUTR’s statement insists, “There is no moral symmetry between a movement committed to equality, safety and community solidarity, and a group promoting hostility and targeting vulnerable people.”
As Stand Up To Racism move to support YourParty, do the Labour Party have any future in Southampton Council?Or will a future battle now be between Reform UK and YourParty?
