HUNDREDS of thousands of people who invested their hope and enthusiasm in “Your Party,” the new party of socialists and progressives headed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, must now be feeling desperately disappointed.

Nearly 800,000 people signed up as supporters. Some opinion polls showed the party even overhauling Labour. At that point, many left-of-Labour voters appeared to prefer it to the Greens.

The latter have radically improved their standing under Zack Polanski’s leadership, even though questions remain about some Green policies.

But the larger problem has been the unending series of rows — over co-leadership; over rival membership systems; over access to money donated and now over providing membership data to the party in Wales, where it is led by two of its most credible leaders, ex-MP Beth Winter and former PCS union leader Mark Serwotka.

The Morning Star makes no attempt to adjudicate these disputes, but we do deplore their continual recurrence, which is a sign of an unhealthy organisation.

There are little or no underlying political differences, or at least none which could not be accommodated within the framework of a broad progressive electoral formation, which Your Party — or whatever it is ultimately called — must be to thrive.

However, one issue is now a particular source of alarm. That is the evidence that the rancour within Your Party is affecting the broader relationship between the left and the Muslim communities.

This has emerged in the form of sharp polemics over the issue of trans rights and “social conservatism” more generally.

The unease felt in sections of otherwise supportive Muslim communities over attempts to make these touchstone issues appears to be among the reasons leading one MP, Blackburn’s Adnan Hussain, announcing that he will no longer play any part in the party.

Another, Iqbal Mohamed in Dewsbury, has expressed similar concerns, writing that “factions on the left” have been “trying to out-left each other with different purity tests which are only dividing and damaging the Your Party movement.

“If this does not stop and we don’t unite on the vast majority of the issues we agree on then the Your Party movement will… disappear,” he added.

This row is entirely unnecessary. Broad political movements must always aim to encompass a range of views. The advocacy of any form of prejudice is obviously unacceptable, but “social conservatism” is a slippery term covering a range of positions.

And as Hussain has said “traditional socialism has never shunned the socially conservative,” while always championing the politics of solidarity.

The divisions risk further fuelling the Islamophobia already rampant in society, as well as rupturing the alliances which have underpinned the anti-war and pro-Palestinian movements over the last quarter century.

Nor is the solution hard to find. It was expressed by Sultana at the weekend with her call for a politics based on class struggle, and by Corbyn in his own positive statement on Your Party’s political priorities issued last week.

It has been spelt out too by Leanne Mohamad, the charismatic young British-Palestinian who came within a hair’s breadth of winning Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s Ilford constituency in last year’s election.

“Both sides need to compromise with one another without compromising their values. For those in the Muslim community who are socially conservative, they’ve got to accept — and most of them do already accept — that one should not discriminate against others whatever one’s personal beliefs.

“On the other side, social progressives have to recognise the true meaning of pluralism: that not everyone needs to conform to their outlook,” she said.

Wise words which should guide all involved in Your Party going forward.