JEREMY CORBYN and Zarah Sultana have reaffirmed their intention to launch a new political party of the socialist left to challenge a system rigged against working people.

The two former Labour MPs issued a joint statement today committing to the new party after three weeks of sometimes tense and challenging discussions since Ms Sultana quit the Labour Party.

They pledged the creation of “a new kind of political party — one that belongs to you” and looked ahead to a founding conference at which members would “decide the party’s direction, the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.”

The founding process will also determine the name of the new party. It is understood that the process will be overseen by a working group to be established by the Independent Alliance of MPs, of which Corbyn and Sultana are both members.

Polling shows that the party will pose a serious threat to Labour, with one survey putting the two neck-and-neck on 15 per cent.

In alliance with the Greens, currently in the midst of their own leadership contest, it could overhaul Labour as the main electoral expression of the left in British politics.

Certainly its existence will complicate PM Sir Keir Starmer’s political strategy, which relies exclusively on trying to appeal to right-wing and even racist voters and has created the vacuum which the Corbyn-Sultana initiative seeks to fill.

The statement resolves protracted arguments over how the party would be led on an interim basis, until the initiative has its democratic processes in place.

Considerable pressure was brought to bear by leading figures on the left for agreement to be reached.

“The system is rigged when 4.5 million children live in poverty in the sixth-richest country in the world,” the statement said. “The system is rigged when giant corporations make a fortune from rising bills.”

“The system is rigged when the government says there is no money for the poor, but billions for war. We cannot accept these injustices, and neither should you.”

The statement continued: “We will only fix the crises in our society with a mass redistribution of wealth and power. That means taxing the very richest in our society.

“That means an NHS free from privatisation and bringing energy, water, rail and mail into public ownership,” it added, and “investing in a massive council-house building programme” — recalling some of the most popular policies of Labour under Corbyn.

The Corbyn-Sultana statement also takes aim at “the government’s complicity in crimes against humanity. Now, more than ever, we must defend the right to protest against genocide.

“That is why we will keep demanding an end to all arms sales to Israel and for the only path to peace — a free and independent Palestine.

“The great dividers want you to think that the problems in our society are caused by migrants or refugees. They’re not. They are caused by an economic system that protects the interests of corporations and billionaires.

“It is ordinary people who create the wealth — and it is ordinary people who have the power to put it back where it belongs.

“It’s time for a new kind of political party. One that is rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements. One that builds power in all regions and nations. One that belongs to you.”

Mr Corbyn, whose latest polling shows to be more popular than the Prime Minister — a very low bar, admittedly — said of the new party: “The Labour Party is a very top-down, highly centralised party that is full of control freaks.

“This is going to be community-led, community-based, grassroots-led; this is going to be very different, and you know what? It’s going to be fun.”

He also pledged close collaboration with Ms Sultana, saying: “We’re working absolutely together on this. So it’s all fine, we’re working very well together, all of us.”

The party is understood to have attracted well over 100,000 supporters since Ms Sultana’s announcement on July 3 and will be aiming to surpass Reform’s claimed 200,000 members to become the second-biggest party in the country after Labour.

Its six MPs already give it a larger parliamentary presence than the Farage outfit, which has lost MPs to splits and scandal.

It is believed that the as-yet unnamed party will hold its inaugural conference in the near future.

One issue to be determined is whether it will take the form of an alliance of already existing left and independent electoral initiatives across the country, or be a more formally structured organisation, or some hybrid of the two.

Whatever final view is taken, it will be registered with the Electoral Commission as a party.

It will have to decide how best to give effect to the two leaders’ pledge to “build a democratic movement that can take on the rich and powerful — and win” as Britain enters a period of increasing electoral and political volatility.