The Politics of (False) Momentum

British politics is volatile as of late. The UK’s political parties are all clamouring for an ascendancy amidst the Labour government’s current unpopularity. These parties smell blood and feel it is essential they begin to establish a support base now, whilst the government is on its knees, hoping this will coalesce into a mighty performance come the next general election. This disruption to the traditional dominance of Labour and the Conservatives has been hailed as Britain’s new five-party system; however, the emergence of Jeremy Corbyn’s new party could make it six. This fledgling party is desperate to appear electorally viable - even more so than other established parties - to avoid being dead on arrival. This desperation, however, has led the party into extreme efforts to appear popular - efforts which have eerily veered into misinformation. 

If you were to create a new political party, one of the most obvious tasks that appears on your agenda is deciding on a name. This can has been well and truly kicked down the road by Corbyn and his self-declared co-leader Zarah Sultana, an odd decision. Instead of getting into the organisation itself, we’re spending time debating a name. Their current placeholder is Your Party (which this article will use hereafter), although other names have been suggested. One such example is ‘The Left Party’, which is so vague that it means little to nothing. Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky, Tony Blair, and Britain’s current Prime Minister are all ‘left’, highlighting how the title overgeneralises to such an extent that it fails to represent much at all. Regardless of the teething troubles in naming the thing, Your Party certainly appears to be turning heads.

Strategic voting has a profound impact on elections. Whilst the growing waves of anti-establishment sentiment in Britain have doubtless eroded its poignancy, come the next election, the six major parties need to convince electors they can seize the day. Given its infancy, Your Party has come out swinging with grand claims about its size and future fortunes. Sultana, eager to highlight their momentum, has made several X posts on the subject. Celebrating reaching 230,000 sign-ups, she eagerly pointed out “That’s more than Reform’s membership”, before listing prominent figures within the Party and suggesting, "Your boys are taking one hell of a beating. Labour, you’re next”. Later, upon reaching over half a million sign-ups, she implored people to “Call Starmer’s bluff and leave the sinking ship”, encouraging Labour defections. 

The number of sign-ups is, at first glance, impressive, but its deployment in political marketing has thus far been misleading. By comparing Your Party’s sign-up figures to membership figures of other parties, the new organisation presents an illusory sense of momentum for two main reasons. 

Firstly, the sign-ups hardly indicate an accurate scale of this rebellious Labour offshoot. To count as a signup, you need to visit Your Party’s website and fill in four pieces of required information: your first and last name, as well as your email and postcode, none of which need to be verified. Anyone could sign up, multiple times even - I could sign up as Keir Starmer under a made-up email address and postcode, highlighting how this is a not-so-subtle attempt to manufacture a sense of scale that is not inherently there. 

Secondly, a sign-up is not a membership. In what sense is someone filling out an online form without verification remotely comparable to established Party membership numbers? Not only is official Party membership a far greater degree of involvement within an organisation, but it also involves a financial commitment that makes the two figures entirely incommensurable.

Corbyn has suggested that his “new kind of political party” will fight for a brighter future, providing true democratic empowerment. Lofty, but unsurprising, words for a man co-leading an entirely new organisation desperate to prove its viability. While the far left of the British political spectrum is used to anecdotal justifications, like all ideological outlooks, their recent foray into quantitative comparison is troubling. It is a calculated attempt to manufacture an unprecedented wave of false political momentum, designed entirely for the social media age. These sizeable stats are perfect fodder for young people, who have increased political importance given the recent expansion of youth suffrage, who like, comment, and reshare them to their heart’s content to create an illusionary wave of seismic popular proportions. 

While certainly not the most significant issue facing British politics, it is interesting that the UK’s newest political party, founded under the principle that “Westminster is broken”, is manipulating information to maximise its perceived electability in a manner similar to the established parties it claims to be distinct from. As Your Party is yet to officially launch, we do not have reliable polling data to indicate its potential fortunes. All we know for sure is that Britain’s Parliamentary infant is, in a political landscape defined by momentum, unafraid of traditional half-truth tactics.

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion