When a new political party emerges, the immediate question is invariably: what will it be called?
However, Jeremy Corbyn is charting a different course.
The former Labour leader claims that over 600,000 individuals have registered as supporters of the nascent left-wing party he is establishing in collaboration with Zarah Sultana, an independent and former Labour MP.
As it stands, this is a party without a moniker.
Initial reports suggested the name would be Your Party, based on the sign-up website’s title, but Sultana swiftly dismissed this.
Sultana has expressed her preference for The Left or the Left Party as potential titles for the new venture.
However, Corbyn and Sultana are soliciting name suggestions from their supporters, incorporating this into a broader discussion about the party’s core principles.
The party cannot field candidates until a name is registered with the Electoral Commission, which enforces stringent regulations to prevent name duplication or excessive similarity to existing parties.
Beyond these constraints, supporters have considerable creative freedom.
“The name should encapsulate the essence of the party in a concise phrase,” suggests Prof Matthew Flinders of Sheffield University.
He also argues that the current moment is opportune for a political party named with contemporary relevance.
Prof Flinders contends that the mainstream parties’ brands were established in different eras, and “most young people don’t really understand what Labour means, or Conservative”.
“They especially don’t know what Liberal Democrat means.”
The traditional reliance on local branch meetings for party sustenance has “eroded in a digital age, making the relationships thinner and putting more pressure on name and brand recognition to resonate with voters,” Prof Flinders says.
In the commercial sphere, brand names are paramount.
“A name holds considerable power, and effectively conveying your viewpoint through strategic word choice can be highly impactful,” says Laura Rogers, executive creative director at advertising agency AMV BBDO, whose clients include Currys and the RSPCA.
She suggests aiming for a name that is easily shareable online and lends itself well to “merch”.
A poorly chosen name risks ridicule. The Post Office’s £2m rebranding as Consignia in 2001, which was later reversed due to the name’s unpopularity, serves as a cautionary tale.
New political parties must also be mindful of social media’s propensity to turn everything into a punchline.
“Ensure the first three letters don’t spell a bad word,” warns journalist Ash Sarkar of the left-wing media site Novara Media.
“Like the word assembly can very easily be changed to ‘ass’.”
While this may seem flippant, “People experience and understand politics through the content they share online,” Sarkar says.
Allowing the general public to name a party would have been a disaster, leading to “Party McPartyface” says Sarkar – referencing the time Boaty McBoatface won a public poll to name a £200m polar research ship.
Dominic Bailey, co-founder of branding and design agency Baxter and Bailey, suggests Corbyn’s decision to solicit names from supporters is a shrewd tactic to generate buzz and foster a sense of ownership among those who sign up.
“It also really fits with his brand to be social and democratic with the choice of name,” Bailey says.
“But being democratic in naming and design doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he warns.
Political history is replete with cautionary examples for new parties seeking to establish a distinct identity.
The Electoral Commission website indicates that a new party is registered nearly every week in the UK, yet most fade into obscurity without making a significant national impact.
Even parties that launch with 11 MPs and a national profile can collapse without ever really defining themselves – like The Independent Group (TIG), which launched at the height of the Brexit deadlock in 2019 as an avowedly centrist, pro–European Union political party.
The party only lasted ten months but changed its name twice, first to Change UK and then to The Independent Group for Change after petitions website Change.org threatened to sue over the name.
Heidi Allen, the ex-Tory MP who was the first leader of Change UK, recalls her party became “lost in admin”, sapping the fledgling movement of oxygen.
Choosing a name that speaks to your message and is not already taken by another political group of business is “trickier than you think”, says Allen.
Pamela Fitzpatrick, who runs the Peace and Justice Project with Corbyn, registered a party last month named “Arise” – a name drawn from one of Corbyn’s favourite poems.
But political strategist and pollster Chris Bruni‑Lowe, who has written a book on the history of politic slogans, would advise against using Arise as the new party’s name.
“Vague or overly poetic names will underperform, especially if the party is meant to be a corrective force,” he says.
Researching his book, Bruni-Lowe says he found “voters don’t reward wordplay – they reward clarity and conviction”.
A name must also be “clear” rather than “clever”, he says.
And the most effective political brands “offer a vision or mission, not just an organisational label” and use “the electorate’s own language and frustrations”.
Corbyn has insisted the final decision will only come after “all the responses” are in. The plan is to settle on a name at the party’s founding conference, in the autumn.
But the discussions around the name are just a distraction, says Sarkar.
Westminster tends to “hyper-fixate on things that don’t really matter”, she argues.
“It’s not going to live or die based on a name,” insists Sarkar. “It will live or die based on its political strategy.”
“The fact that 600,000 people have signed up to the new Corbyn project with no name is an answer to the question on how much the name matters,” she adds.
In a message to supporters on Friday, the party with no name said: “Make no mistake: whatever the name, it is always going to be your party.”
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Councillor Grace Lewis, 21, pledges to help with the setting up of the new political party.
Labour and the Greens appear to have the most to fear from a new left-wing party but UK politics is very volatile.
It comes after ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana said she was quitting the party to co-found a new party with Corbyn.
Former Labour leader Corbyn has not yet confirmed his involvement to the BBC.
The pair were interviewed by police after a pro-Palestinian demonstration in January.