Your Party to stand in 2026 Holyrood election
The announcement was made the Your Party Scotland conference in Dundee, where 69.8% of members voted in favour of the move.
Your Party members have voted to stand in the 2026 Holyrood election, with the party’s co-founder Zarah Sultana saying Scotland deserves better than “a politics that wears the veneer of progressivism”.
The vote took place during the founding conference of Your Party Scotland in Dundee, with 69.8% of the party’s members backing the move.
A motion saying the party should “prioritise standing candidates on the regional list in a limited number of regions”, while standing “fewer candidates elsewhere”, passed with 64% of the vote.
The process for selecting candidates and developing policy is now expected to begin as early as next week.
A run-off vote to determine the nature of any alliance with other parties in the 2026 election and in future polls, is expected to conclude in the coming week.
Immediately after the result was announced Ms Sultana – who is the party’s only Westminster MP – gave a speech in which she took aim at the SNP and Scottish Greens.
The Coventry South MP said: “While this Westminster Government oppresses people abroad, it punishes people in Scotland too, across the NHS, local government, schools and community services, people feel the strain.
“Budgets tighten, expectations for managed decline is presented as realism.
“And what’s striking is how often that settlement is backed by parties who claim to be progressive, a political class that is managing cuts and scarcity instead of fighting for transformation.
“Scottish people deserve better than a politics that wears the veneer of progressivism while still pushing through cuts that decimate our communities, and that’s what you get with the SNP and the Greens.”
She added: “We can do better than that.
“In fact, you deserve better than that, and Your Party exists to oppose cuts, and I’m glad that you have voted to put candidates on a no-cuts platform, because that is the socialist position.”
Other motions were voted on at the conference, with 63% of members backing one saying “an independent Scotland is the best route to improve the lives of people in Scotland and achieve socialism”.
About 85% backed a motion saying Your Party Scotland’s elected representatives “will never vote for cuts and will support the moving of legal no cuts budgets in council chambers and in Holyrood”.
Ellie Gomersall, a member of the Your Party Scotland conference organising group, said: “From agreeing our position in support of independence, to committing to stand candidates in select regions in the upcoming Holyrood elections, this weekend members across Scotland proved our commitment to becoming a serious political force that will put in the work to transform Scotland and improve people’s lives.
“With the far right on the rise and governments in both Holyrood and Westminster passing on cuts to local communities, the need for a real anti-establishment party to challenge the status quo couldn’t be more needed – and that’s exactly what Your Party Scotland is here to do. This weekend is just the beginning.”
Party co-founder Jeremy Corbyn, who sits in Westminster as an Independent MP, told the conference it is up to the people of Scotland whether they want another independence referendum.
He said: “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always had the position that if the people in Scotland and the Scottish organisations want a referendum to decide the future of Scotland, that is their choice.”
