But if the drama has drained the mood at the top, it did not kill the buzz on the floor.
During a break in proceedings, Nick Parker, a party organiser from Lincoln, said “disagreements are natural, because we all recognise that it’s a really important project that we’re trying to build”.
The feuds were “a side issue” detracting from broad agreement on a “political programme fighting back against cuts, against privatisation, against war, against racism”, he said.
Bonnie Ambrose agreed. There is “no perfect way” to found a party, she said.
“But by God, we need it – and what came across strongly was that we were all determined to make a difference,” she said.
Maybe this is just what democracy looks like.
A deeply unpopular Labour government, seen by the delegates here as copying the Reform UK message on immigration, has freed up yet more support to a left-wing alternative.
The Green Party, who have reached record membership numbers under self-described eco-populist Zack Polanski, do not fit the bill.
A group of young activists who do not want to give their names say while the Greens “talk the talk”, they fail to put the “working class at their heart”.
