THREE leading figures involved in Your Party stepped down from their role as directors of the company holding money and data intended for the new socialist party today.

Former North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll, Andrew Feinstein, the parliamentary candidate who challenged Sir Keir Starmer, and ex-Labour MP Beth Winter announced in an angry statement that they were resigning from MOU ltd, the company established earlier this year to help launch the new organisation.

They are being replaced by MP Zarah Sultana.

The move looked set to resolve the dispute over the funds — understood to be around £1 million — in the MOU account and end the latest row to rock Your Party in its short existence.

It is understood that Ms Sultana will now expedite the transfer of the resources to Your Party, which will assist in the organisation of its founding conference, to be held in Liverpool next month.

In the statement, the three MOU directors said: “We set up MOU to support the creation of an alliance of progressive community independents, with Jeremy Corbyn playing a central role in its formation. 

“Since that time, the nature of the project has changed significantly, as have the people involved. 

“The company we are responsible for has repeatedly been used without our agreement. 

“After the confusing launch of two membership systems, neither of which we had any part in, we faced the added complication of MOU holding data and membership records.

“We wrote to the Your Party leadership asking them to take complete ownership and control of MOU. Five of the six MPs declined. 

“Your Party demanded control of MOU’s assets without accepting control of MOU itself. This would have left us to deal with the liabilities and costs from the confused membership launches. 

“We cannot accept personal liability for actions that were taken without our knowledge or approval, nor could we agree to a proposed ‘resolution’ that put MOU at risk of having liabilities exceeding its assets. 

“We were told that refusal ‘will result in public condemnation.’ 

“We offered to hand over ownership to Your Party and make the six Your Party MPs directors in our place, giving them full control. Only one of the six was willing to agree. 

“We tried to resolve this quietly behind the scenes. Your Party have claimed in emails and social media statements that we delayed the data transfer. 

“We repeatedly asked them to stop making factually incorrect claims of this nature. They gave hostile briefings to journalists. 

“Zarah Sultana has agreed to become the sole director of MOU, with a commitment to use the resources for Your Party, as was always intended. We will resign immediately once the legal formalities have been completed.”

Your Party made no statement responding to the resignations and is anxious to defuse the row rather than further aggravate it.  The threat of legal action is now in abeyance.

It is not clear what part the three directors intend to play in Your Party going forward.