The Very Reverend Dean Rogers Govender has headed the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral for 20 years, but last night was the first time he’d welcomed Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to Manchester. It’s a cold Tuesday night in November and I’ve just demolished a bratwurst from the nearby Christmas market, and I’m in the 600 year-old church for a rally with the UK’s newest political party.
Also in attendance: political activist and psychotherapist Salma Yaqoob and John Rees from revolutionary socialist organisation Counterfire.
A lady called Penny chairs the meeting in the packed church.
“People have been voiceless for too long,” says Yaqoob. “We‘ve marched, begged, we don’t want to quit.
"Green party growth,” she explains, “is not a threat. It’s a positive. 1 in 2 kids live in poverty, in one of the richest countries in the world. We’re seeing inequality rise. The Jewish and Irish were not welcome into the left. Your Party will welcome them. We have far more that unites than divides. Manchester has a key part to play in providing a left wing progressive party.”
John Rees explains that there’s a Pandora’s box in this country. “Evils fly from this box. People have had 2 governments who have ripped living standards from their hands. We’re seeing the complete collapse of Labour. Keir Starmer’s public approval is now lower than Prince Andrew’s. For that, you have to do something very bad, and he has. We have to address the problem: the rise of Nigel Farage and his far right thugs roaming the streets.
“Dad was a colliery miner. When I was born, I was the first person in my family to live in a council house and to be treated by the NHS. We were the only lucky generation. If we don’t stand in the way, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are hanging in the wings. We have to come together soon. We have a simple plan make sure ultra rich will pay. There is no white working class. The working class have always been white, Irish, multi-racial. We should be part of the politics.
“In the face of employers, and Universal Credit, if you’re for unity, then join the people who will demonstrate with us in their millions. The will is there to change society for the better. If we do it we can transform society.”
Then, a local choir performs a rendition of Whitney Houston’s Step by Step, to which Jeremy Corbyn is welcomed to stage. He tells us he’s never been in the cathedral when it hasn’t been full of people. The Tory Party Conference, he reminds us, was held in Manchester last month.
Your Party leader @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social in Manchester, 25/11/25
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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Impassioned speech from Your Party leader @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social 25/11/25
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— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Corbyn is more than aware that Manchester is clearly becoming a battleground for political parties vying for votes in the UK, so it’s unsurprising that this city is part of his travels this month.
He thanks the choir for singing.
Social justice, he tells us, comes from utilising creativity. There’s a conference happening in Liverpool right now, and he’s confident they’ll come to conclusions necessary.
“I’m utterly determined to offer real practical alternatives. Every Your Party branch will be asked to run open events regarding their community incentives. We’ll join in with community together for grass roots activity, and these will include people who haven’t been involved in politics before. Our membership age is 16, but we could go lower. We also want autonomy in the party. We need to have voice of youth, to hear their personal debate, be it housing, hospitality, waiting lists.
"Since Labour were elected what have they been doing? They expelled people for opposing cuts to disability, installed Austerity 2.0, spent more in Hilton hotels, and yet 15% on hospital expenditure is on private healthcare. We’re all paying the price. £10 million has been taken in private contracts. It’s disgraceful. Staff are running around as there aren’t enough of them.
“Rachel Reeves made a speech about how she’s really concerned about not upsetting the markets.
“These are arguments that I’ll be putting to Labour tomorrow. Starmer wants to increase on defence £13 billion more on nuclear armaments. There has to be a different way of doing things. We’re being told in shorthand terms, ‘expect cuts, like on PIP.’ But $2.4 trillion was spent on armaments in 2023. Imagine if it had gone on oversees aid.
“Here’s a suggestion for Rachel Reeves: A wealth tax on homes over £10 million with that invested in housing. Secure rent so people can afford it. When it’s ‘always the fault of refugees,’ you end up with something eerily familiar to the 1930s. We’re talking Facsism. The history books will record the deaths in refugees, the genocide in Gaza, The Congo etc. People will ask, what were you doing instead of making it worse? The Left in government absolutely failed in providing for people who wanted an alternative.
“Your Party will be different. There’ll be a right to a jury trial, for example.”
(Justice Secretary David Lammy recently announced that these could be scrapped.)
“We need to be united, and we will be. We’ll turn problems into positives. Your Party is your voice. What we’ll achieve together: real peace, real social justice to this world.”
At this point, Transport for Greater Manchester (Bee Network) have their Unison rep – a man in drag whose name I didn’t catch – take to the mic. He explained that drivers have had below inflation pay rises since 2009. This year they were offered an increase of 3.2%, below inflation and below the pay rises of other public sector workers. They’re on strike today (Tuesday), Thursday and Friday. Their bosses cancelled a meeting because they weren’t ready to meet the union reps. A protest, he explains, was planned for 1pm at the Town Hall the next day.
“Excluding trans people won’t make people safer,” he says. “You reap what you sow. We don’t need expert opinions,” he dubiously claims. “We need facts.”
If an expert opinion doesn’t include the facts, I wonder… is it an expert opinion?
Your Party Deputy Leader Zara Sultana couldn’t make tonight’s event, but she had made a pre-recorded video message for us that organisers played on screen.
“Fascism doesn’t always come with Swastikas,” she warns us. “It comes with demonising minorities. We’ve had 15 years of austerity. People are desperate for answers. We’ve been told there is no money for housing or the NHS, but there’s always money for war. We demand welfare, not warfare. The real terrorists are the IDF. Keir Starmer called us an island of strangers, echoing Mosley. People aren’t turned off by class war, they live by it. 50 families have more wealth than the rest of us. We need to cut ties with Israel. We can’t be neutral in apartheid. It must be treated as apartheid state. We need Starmer et al in the Hague.
"Your Party is the largest socialist party since the 1950s. We will rebuild society. Power always comes from below; it doesn’t sit Power doesn’t sit in Westminster. It’s in grassroots movements. In New York, Zohran Mamdani was elected this way.
“If you want change, you have to fight for it. Thank you.”
Sultana throws up a peace sign before the video ends and the crowd file out.
