Iqbal Mohamed has resigned from Your Party, becoming the second MP in a week to quit Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s fledgling left-wing party amid escalating rows over money, governance and equalities policy.

The Dewsbury and Batley MP announced on Friday that he was leaving the organisation and would continue to sit in the Commons as an independent, deepening a crisis that comes just days before Your Party’s inaugural conference in Liverpool on 29–30 November.

In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Mohamed said he would “continue serving as [he] was elected – as an independent member of parliament for Dewsbury and Batley” and confirmed he would remain part of the Independent Alliance grouping of pro-Palestine MPs. He said his decision followed “many false allegations and smears” made against him and others, which he complained had been reported as fact “without a shred of evidence”.

Mohamed insisted he and colleagues had acted “professionally, patiently and in good faith” in disputes over the new party’s direction, and added that he wished those who remain in Your Party well. He did not spell out the specific allegations he was referring to, but his departure follows days of internal criticism over his comments on transgender rights and women-only spaces.

His resignation comes a week after Adnan Hussain, the Blackburn MP and a key figure in the limited company set up to handle Your Party’s finances, also walked out. Hussain said persistent infighting, “factional competition” and a “struggle for power” had created a “toxic, exclusionary and deeply disheartening” culture inside the project.

The twin departures underline a widening split between two main camps around the party’s founders: a group aligned with Corbyn and long-time associates, and another centred on Sultana and the infrastructure she established to recruit members and raise funds.

One flashpoint has been control of almost £850,000 in small donations and membership levies collected through MOU Operations Ltd, a company originally created to hold money while the party’s formal structures were set up. Sultana is now its sole director. Corbyn-aligned MPs, including Mohamed and Hussain before they quit, had pressed for the full sum to be transferred immediately to the party proper to pay staff and cover the Liverpool conference.

Sultana has argued that she is legally obliged to retain part of the funds for administrative and legal costs, and has offered to move a substantial portion – reported to be around £600,000 – in stages. Her allies say she is following legal advice and protecting donors; her critics accuse her of dragging her feet and using the money as leverage ahead of an expected leadership contest.

Tensions have also sharpened over equalities and trans rights. In recent days Mohamed faced internal complaints about social media posts in which he stressed the importance of “biological women” retaining access to single-sex spaces and not being asked to “give up their rights” to “biological men”. Supporters of Sultana and LGBTQ+ activists around the party characterised the comments as gender-critical and at odds with Your Party’s stated commitment to trans inclusion.

Sultana has repeatedly said that trans rights are “non-negotiable” for any socialist party, insisting there is “no space for transphobia” in the new organisation and describing trans rights as human rights. Allies see a firm stance on the issue as essential to distinguishing the party on the left; others, including some Muslim MPs and community organisers in the party’s base, have pressed for more space for socially conservative views.

Hussain, in his resignation statement last week, claimed there had been “veiled prejudice” in the way Muslim men had been treated during internal arguments, alleging “generalised accusations and offensive slurs” without naming individuals. Party insiders on the other side reject that characterisation and say robust debates have been misrepresented.

The turmoil comes as Your Party prepares for its founding conference at Liverpool’s ACC arena, where delegates selected from a paid membership are due to adopt a constitution and timetable for electing a permanent leadership. Sultana is promoting a large rally on the eve of the gathering, billed as a Your Party event but organised through her own structures, a move that has angered some Corbyn allies who see it as a parallel power base.

Mohamed’s exit leaves Corbyn, Sultana, Leicester South MP Shockat Adam and Birmingham Perry Barr MP Ayoub Khan as the remaining MPs closely associated with Your Party, all elected on pro-Palestine platforms after leaving or being expelled from Labour. Mohamed, who won Dewsbury and Batley as an independent in 2024 with a majority of nearly 7,000, was seen as one of the project’s early parliamentary standard-bearers and helped to form the Independent Alliance group that provided its initial base at Westminster.

The instability has drawn attention from rivals on the left. In comments reported on Saturday, Green Party leader Zack Polanski publicly invited Sultana and disillusioned Your Party supporters to consider defecting, arguing that the Greens offered a more coherent vehicle for radical politics and a clearer commitment to trans rights.

Your Party did not immediately issue a detailed response to Mohamed’s departure on Friday. The resignations of two MPs in as many weeks, alongside unresolved rows over funding, internal culture and policy, mean the Liverpool conference is now set to take place against a backdrop of uncertainty over who speaks for the party – and whether it can hold together long enough to establish itself as a durable force to Labour’s left.