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Corbyn says it's 'just the beginning' as new party overtakes Labour amid surging youth support
Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022

JEREMY CORBYN vowed “this is just the beginning” today after half a million people signed up to his new political party in three days amid a surge in support for the former Labour leader among 18-24 year-olds.

Mr Corbyn, who launched the new left party with fellow ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana on Thursday, said: “For too long, people have been denied a real political choice. Not anymore.

“Half a million people have already signed up, but this is just the beginning. We are an unstoppable movement for equality, democracy and peace — and we are never, ever going away.”

The half-a-million mark was reached on Sunday and is expected to continue to climb.

It is already well over the Labour Party's reportedly “haemorrhaging” latest membership figures, which stood at 309,000 in February.

And it is also higher than the combined total of Reform UK's 227,592 and the Conservatives 123,000 this month.

Polling has meanwhile showed that the independent MP is far more popular among young voters than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Sir Keir’s approval ratings are poor across all age groups, sinking to minus 30 among young people.

Polling on the day Mr Corbyn announced the new party, however, showed an approval rating of plus 18 for the left-wing politician within the age bracket.

The survey also had Mr Corbyn slightly ahead of Sir Keir among all voters — with Sir Keir on minus 40 and Mr Corbyn on minus 39.

Ministers announced plans to give the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds as the Prime Minister’s approval rating hit an all time low of minus 43 following the £5 billion welfare U-turn earlier this month.

The polling, first reported by the Sunday Times, also found that seven in 10 voters think Sir Keir’s government is at least as chaotic as the Tories’ previous term just a year in.

One in three voters said they believed that it is even more so.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle attacked Mr Corbyn on Friday, telling Times Radio that he's “not a serious politician" and that his “posturing, of course, just puts him at odds with his own supporters.”

A Labour source has also said: “The electorate has twice given its verdict on a Jeremy Corbyn-led party.”

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