UK Politics

The Green party’s membership has jumped by more than 1,000 people in a day after a public split between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana cast doubt on the viability of the pair’s new leftwing party.

Almost 1,400 people signed up to the Greens in the 24 hours since the bitter disagreement emerged, in which Corbyn and his allies referred Sultana to the information watchdog after claims that she started collecting membership subscriptions without authority.

The leap has helped push the Greens in England and Wales above 75,000 members, a more than 10% increase on the number of members when Zack Polanski won the contest to be their leader at the start of the month, the party said.

After his victory Polanski expressed willingness to potentially cooperate with the party being set up by Corbyn, the former Labour leader, and Sultana, who was elected as a Labour MP but now sits as an independent.

However, the Green leader has said it is impossible to know if and how that might happen given the lack of any party structure or policies. He added that the Greens already offer a political home for left-leaning voters disillusioned with Labour.