Ms Sultana has sole control of a company holding over £800,000 of Your Party donations following an internal fallout.

Her spokesperson told Sky News £600k would be transferred over in three tranches starting with £200k from Wednesday, and the rest "once the company's costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full".

But a Your Party source told Sky News she should transfer the full £800k worth of donations now.

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It follows a major row over finances behind the scenes of the new left-wing party, which Ms Sultana co-launched with Jeremy Corbyn in July.

At the time, a company called MOU Operations was used to collect donations, with the idea this would be transferred over to Your Party once it was formally registered with the Electoral Commission.

The registration happened on 30 September, but no transfer of funds has been made - despite Ms Sultana stepping in to take ownership of MOU last month after its previous three directors quit.

It is understood MOU is also holding around £500k in fees collected as part of Ms Sultana's unauthorised membership launch, which caused a major row in September and is now being investigated by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The Your Party source told Sky News that Ms Sultana has been told Your Party can't accept that money due to legal risks and accused her of trying to "offload" it.

How did we get here?

Ms Sultana agreed to take over MOU to break a standoff between Your Party and the company's previous three directors - former Labour MP Beth Winter, former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll and former South African politician Andrew Feinstein.

The trio set up MOU in April to assist with a new left-wing party centred around Mr Corbyn but resigned on 29 October, claiming the role of holding donations had been "thrust upon" them and raising concerns about a "lack of appropriate governance" within Your Party.

The former directors said they wanted Your Party to take full control of MOU because of worries around liabilities but five of the six founding MPs refused.

Ms Sultana said her stepping in would "bring the chapter to a close" and "these resources will now be used for Your Party, as was always intended".

Her allies have dismissed "hostile briefings" suggesting she is deliberately withholding the money, insisting she has been conducting "due diligence" before sending it over.

Sky News understands Ms Sultana has been seeking Your Party's constitution and financial scheme as registered with the Electoral Commission, to help her understand the party's governing structures.

A source close to her claims there has been an unwillingness to share the documents from within Your Party, so she has requested them from the elections watchdog directly.

It is not clear who wrote the documents and who is controlling access to them - or why one of the party's founders should not be able to see them.

'Low trust environment'

However one Your Party source described operating in a "low trust environment" since the membership fiasco, despite public efforts to patch things up,

Senior Your Party figures have accused Ms Sultana of deliberately withholding MOU's funds for political leverage. Organisers expressed frustration at operating on a "shoestring" ahead of the founding conference at the end of this month.

A spokesperson for Ms Sultana said: "Zarah did not choose to become the sole director of MOU Operations Limited, but was prepared to take on this responsibility to ensure funds are transferred as quickly as possible and preparations for the founding conference can progress.

"As sole director, she is legally responsible for ensuring the company's costs, liabilities and expenses are settled, and this process may take some time. To ensure funds are available for the founding conference, she will transfer £600k in tranches over the next couple of weeks. The first £200k is scheduled to be sent 12 November.

"All remaining funds will be transferred once the company's costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full."

A Your Party spokesperson said: "We are completely focused on putting together a successful founding conference for our members, so they can democratically decide Your Party's structures and programme, and Britain can get the socialist alternative it so badly needs. Hundreds of volunteers are working tirelessly on a shoestring budget to make this a reality, a testament to the grassroots power of our mass movement."

More than 20 people answered the call he made on social media - one wears a T-shirt saying Jesus is King.

Another wears a Union Jack anorak with a T-shirt emblazoned "UTK" - Unite the Kingdom - the movement organised by anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson.

Wearing a white robe over a wetsuit, Dewar strides down the beach and prepares for a mass baptism.

His voice booms out: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I gladly baptise you!"

Critics call Dewar "the far-right bishop" - a label he rejects.

But he does represent a new type of Christianity - more militant, more political - and one that is on the rise.

Several of those here came because they saw Dewar preaching fire and brimstone at Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march on 13 September.

And they are ready to follow him into the cold waters of the Celtic Sea. One by one, he blesses them, then plunges them under the waves. Afterwards, they hug. Some are euphoric.

Fergus Worrall drove from Bristol with his girlfriend Louise French; both were baptised.

"I saw Ceirion's speech at the Unite the Kingdom rally, and it was just epic," Worrall says. "I mean, I just loved it."

Worrall says he used to be "fairly lefty". After trying Buddhism and New Age practices, he came to Christianity. But Dewar's appeal is not just religious - online he decries immigration and the influence of Islam, a message that "chimed".

"We are a Christian culture, a Christian nation. And I do feel like we have lost a lot of that."

A month earlier, Dewar had addressed the 150,000-strong crowd at the Unite the Kingdom march in London, bishop's crook in hand, his voice thundering out over Westminster: “God, you have not abandoned Britain!”

When he looked out, he saw not just British and English flags, but wooden crosses and depictions of Jesus.

It was not his first appearance with Robinson. The year before, he spoke at another rally in Whitehall and said: "This nation of ours is under attack! We are at war! We are at war not just with the Muslim, not just with wokeness."

This is something new and growing - a movement that has long marched against immigration, against Islam, is now marching behind the cross.

I ask Dewar what for him, as a Christian, is the appeal of Robinson.

"It's not the appeal of Tommy Robinson, per se," he says. "It was the opportunity that he afforded to me to stand in front of that many people and to both pray for the people and this nation."

Dewar was marching front and centre with Robinson. He may be borrowing an audience from Robinson, but he's also effectively endorsing him, I suggest - and doing so in a bishop's garb.

"I don't think that at all. I'm very clear on what I endorse, and my political views are public and well-founded.

"My stand with Tommy is not necessarily political. It's a man that has surrendered his life to Christ, and he's on that journey of faith and trying as a good shepherd to help lead him in that and to shape that faith in a way that is beneficial to him."

I ask him whether he truly thinks we are "at war" with the Muslim.

"Unfortunately, what I was trying to convey, having listened to an entire day's worth of speeches, didn't come across quite the way I'd hoped to have expressed it," Dewar says.

"The problem for me is I understand we're a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-faith Britain, but when you have so many elements that refuse to get into the great melding pot of multiculturalism, but remain outside and try and force that culture, force that religious system, force that legal system into an existing culture, then there's always going to be problems.

"I would love to see more Christianity at the heart of our politics. I would like to see Christian principles once again driving our legal system."

Many on the hard and far right agree with him - and increasingly link an anti-Islam agenda with a Christian identity. That also adds grandeur to grassroots street politics, elevating a culture war into a clash of civilisations.

UKIP, which has become more explicitly nationalist since the departure of Nigel Farage as party leader, says in its manifesto that it will "declare war on radical Islam and place Christianity back into the heart of government".

Online, people call for a "holy war". Katie Hopkins, the far-right commentator who also marched shoulder to shoulder with Robinson, said in a recent interview: "Certainly the time of the crusades will need to come again... We are overrun."

One group organising online, with more than 50,000 followers, uses Christian imagery as part of its pledge to "hunt down Muslims".

Dr Maria Power, author of The Church, The Far Right, And The Claim To Christianity, describes this as "Christian nationalism" and says it has a precedent in the UK, especially in Northern Ireland, where Britishness and Christianity were often equated.

"But really, I've seen it increase since we've seen the power of Christian nationalism in the States develop. You start to see inklings of it, probably about four or five years ago. Particular pastors talking this way, podcasts emerging, and content emerging on places like YouTube. And it's very easy to fall down the rabbit hole of the algorithm, isn't it?"

Ceirion Dewar rejects the term Christian nationalism, which he sees as specific to the United States, a country that has a different tradition of public, political Christianity. And it's true that he and others have been advocating and preaching a more muscular Christianity since at least 2016 and the Brexit referendum.

One of his friends is Rikki Doolan, who belongs to the Spirit Embassy, a church in London with British-Zimbabwean origins. (A 2023 investigation by Al Jazeera accused Doolan and others in the church of being involved in money laundering, an accusation Doolan describes as "fake news and a false narrative".)

It was Doolan who "converted" Tommy Robinson to Christianity three weeks before the latter left prison earlier this year. Doolan says it is "a new journey" for Robinson.

Doolan was also on stage at UTK. I ask him about some of the statements made there, including by a Belgian politician, that "Islam does not belong in Europe and Islam does not belong in the UK". He says he disagrees with that "because it's not realistic". But "if we can't fix the problem, then that makes more sense. But I would like to try and fix it first".

Doolan and Dewar stand outside the established Church. But the majority of Christians in the UK still belong to the Church of England.

Dr Sam Wells is the vicar of St Martin's-in-the-Field, a Church of England church on the corner of Trafalgar Square in London. He was holding an annual service commemorating victims of suicide when Robinson's march came right up to the square, resulting in skirmishes with the police. Wells says his congregation was "hurt" by the Christian imagery on display.

"The gestures of the cross, the Christian symbols, are about love and understanding and peace and gentleness and they're being thrust in people's faces as weapons," he says. "I think that's very painful."

Wells was one of the senior clergy leaders who signed an open letter denouncing Robinson's march as a "corruption" of the Christian faith, saying the cross was being "co-opted" by the far right. Dewar in turn wrote his own letter denouncing the Anglican hierarchy for seeking "polite applause in editorial offices and political chambers", calling on them to "repent".

Dr Wells says Dewar’s letter is "very well expressed but I think it’s nonsense".

"Christian values, what does that actually mean? I think it means love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. An institution or a church or a preacher has a right to be called Christian if they look like Jesus. Those marches didn't look like Jesus to me. They looked like the kind of people who were attacking Jesus in Holy Week.

"I think they're reading a different Bible from the one I'm reading."

If the talk is of winning, well there are very different battlegrounds.

The cloisters versus a Cornish beach.

Dewar has several mass baptisms planned across the country; so does Doolan.

This is not just about the extreme right using Christianity for their own ends; it's just as much some Christians using the far right to reach new audiences.

A new Christian politics, in all sorts of ways and all sorts of places, is on the march.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

The suspect, named Taleb A in line with German privacy laws, is accused of murdering five women aged between 45 and 75 years old and a nine-year-old boy during the attack, which lasted just over a minute on 20 December 2024.

The 51-year-old Saudi-born defendant is also charged with attempting to murder 338 people and injuring 309 during the attack in Magdeburg, which is 150km (93 miles) southwest of Berlin.

Prosecutors claim that during the rampage, which began at 7.02pm, Taleb A's rented BMW reached speeds of up to 29mph (48kph) as it crashed into crowds enjoying the festivities on the final Friday before Christmas.

On the first day of the trial, the defendant blinked back tears during his 90-minute testimony as he talked about Andre Gleissner, the child he's accused of mowing down.

Taleb A said he remembers having a vision of a child as he was driving through the market.

He wept in the bulletproof glass box, built for his security in the specially-erected courtroom, and apologised to Andre's parents.

The boy's father was present for the first day of the trial after travelling from southern Germany, according to German media.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors spent more than two hours reading out the charges, which included horrific details of the injuries caused to both survivors and victims.

The suspect was seen repeatedly blowing his nose as the court heard descriptions of the aftermath of the attack, including survivors being left with brain injuries and a pregnant woman giving birth prematurely.

Dressed in a blue T-shirt and black top, former psychiatrist Taleb A stated his testimony of the evening would take "hours if not days".

He began his defence by talking about French philosopher Voltaire and criticising "left-wing media".

During his initial opening, he jumped between topics, reeling off wide-ranging allegations against the Berlin police, the former German interior minister Nancy Faeser, and even former chancellor Angela Merkel.

He also rejected an assessment by a forensic expert that he is a narcissist.

"I don't want other foreigners to be disadvantaged because of what I did," the defendant told the court, as he switched between displays of remorse and discussions of political conspiracy.

Some of the plaintiffs turned their bodies away from the defendant as he made his speech.

Others sat with their heads in their hands, refusing to look at Taleb A, as he ranted about the "left-right wing" divide, migration and refugee organisations.

At the time of his arrest, officials said he was an "untypical" attacker with the then interior minister alleging he was Islamophobic.

A refugee from Saudi Arabia, Taleb A described himself as an "ex-Muslim".

His social media pages, which he posted on in the hours leading up to the attack, promoted anti-Islam views - and claimed Germany was allowing the "Islamisation of Europe".

He also showed support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AFD), suggesting they were both fighting to protect Germany.

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The trial is due to continue on Tuesday with the defendant answering questions from the court. The case is currently scheduled to run until March.

If found guilty, Taleb A could face a life sentence.

The BBC's director-general position is a crucial role, serving effectively as both the corporation's chief executive and its editor-in-chief across television, radio and online.

Davie, who has worked for the BBC for 20 years and been in charge for the past five, is not stepping down immediately.

He said in his departure note to staff that he is "working through exact timings with the board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months".

It is still early days, but here are some of the names being discussed as contenders for the role.

Charlotte Moore

Chief executive of Left Bank Pictures, a British independent TV and film production company owned by Sony, Charlotte Moore was chief content officer at the BBC for five years before leaving in the summer.

She was among those shortlisted when Davie got the job in 2020 and is known as the mastermind behind the commissioning of The Great British Bake Off.

In March 2023, she was awarded the Royal Television Society Judges Award in recognition of her leadership "through one of the most momentous years in [the BBC's] history and having done so with an exceptional combination of steadfast level-headedness, confidence and creative flair".

"The BBC is an extraordinary place to work," she said in a statement when her move to Left Bank was announced.

"There's nowhere quite like it that backs risk-taking, innovation and homegrown creativity with such commitment."

James Harding

A former editor of the Times and director of BBC News, James Harding is the co-founder and editor of slow news venture Tortoise Media, which bought The Observer newspaper in December 2024.

Harding called for the BBC to be "put beyond the reach of politicians" in an interview with Sky News before giving the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival in the summer.

Establishing the independence of the BBC is critical "if we want to build confidence in shared facts and respect for the truth", he said.

Jay Hunt

Jay Hunt is Apple TV+'s creative director for Europe and was appointed chair of the British Film Institute in 2024.

She has previously worked as chief creative officer for Channel 4, director of programmes at Channel 5 and controller of BBC One.

Channel 4 was named Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2014 and 2016 under her leadership, and she was known for buying the rights to The Great British Bake Off from the BBC.

At Apple, she has overseen commissioning for award-winning shows such as Bad Sisters and Slow Horses.

Alex Mahon

After almost eight years as chief executive of Channel 4 - the first woman in the broadcaster's history to take the helm - Alex Mahon left the role earlier this year to lead live entertainment group Superstruct Entertainment.

Superstruct owns and operates more than 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia, including Boardmasters in Cornwall and Mighty Hoopla.

Mahon's move allowed her to earn a more lucrative remuneration package than the one on offer to her at Channel 4, Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman reported at the time.

Dawn Airey, Channel 4 interim chair, described her as a "great figure in British television" and said she had been "one of the most impactful CEOs" since the founding of Channel 4 in 1982.

She was the recipient of Variety's 2020 International Achievement in Television Award and has been honoured with an International Royal Industrial Fellowship.

Dame Carolyn McCall

Dame Carolyn McCall has led ITV since she joined the channel in 2018, having served as chief executive of easyJet for seven years and chief executive of the Guardian Media Group for four years.

She was made a dame in 2016 for services to the aviation industry and an OBE before that in 2008 for services to women in business.

She has led ITV plc's "significant transformation in the competitive digital media landscape since joining in 2018, successfully evolving it from a linear organisation to a strong linear and digital media, entertainment, and global production business", her biography for the broadcaster states.

McCall is in the preliminary stages of talks with Sky, the owner of Sky News, over the possible sale of ITV's media and entertainment division.

Sir Trevor Phillips

Another name that has been suggested by a few commentators is Sky News's Sir Trevor Phillips, who presents Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips each weekend.

A businessman and journalist, Phillips has won Royal Television Society journalism awards three times. He is also a Times columnist and was shortlisted for Comment Writer of the Year in 2020.

Phillips, who was knighted in 2022 for services to equality and human rights, was previously head of current affairs for London Weekend TV (where he worked alongside BBC chair Samir Shah), chair of the London Assembly, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and president of the John Lewis Partnership Council.

His name has been mentioned as a possible contender on political website Guido Fawkes, as well as by Rod Liddle on Times Radio and journalist Stephen Pollard in a column for The Spectator, headlined: "Is this the man who can save the BBC?"

Senior BBC staff

Could the BBC look internally?

One name that has been mentioned is Jonathan Munro, who, since joining the BBC in 2014, has led news coverage "through every major story over the last decade", his biography for the broadcaster states, from Brexit to UK general elections, and the death of the Queen to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

He became global director of BBC News in September 2024, and is also director of the BBC World Service and deputy chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs.

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There is also Kate Phillips, who replaced Moore as chief content officer, the senior executive responsible for all the BBC's network TV and radio output, in the summer.

She has only been in the role for a few months, having previously held the position of director of unscripted content. During the pandemic, she was acting controller of BBC One.

In other circumstances, BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness perhaps could have been a possible candidate to replace Davie, but she announced her resignation alongside his on Sunday night.

As Davie said, he is looking to pass on the baton in the coming months.

His successor will be appointed by the BBC Board, which is responsible for ensuring the broadcaster delivers its mission and public purposes.

A group of 75 politicians has described their captivity at the Sea Life London Aquarium - a stone's throw from the Houses of Parliament - as "un-British".

The aquarium, in the County Hall building on the South bank, opposite the London Eye, first launched its exhibit of gentoo penguins in May 2011, and campaigners are arguing they "have now endured 14 years" in a small space with a pool just 2.1m (7ft) deep.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds has been asked to "consider whether the penguins should be relocated to a more suitable facility better aligned with their behavioural, ecological and physiological needs".

David Taylor - the Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead - coordinated the letter and said the campaign "won't stop until these penguins get the life they deserve".

He added: "No animal should live like that, with their rights appearing to be traded for hard cash."

Pressure has been building in recent weeks on Merlin Entertainments, the company that owns the aquarium, as well as attractions including Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds.

Environmentalist Feargal Sharkey recently challenged its chief executive Fiona Eastwood to "swap places with the penguins", in an "old council building", for a month.

"It's idiotic. It's a nonsense, and it's got to stop," he warned.

Meanwhile, naturalist Chris Packham - who attended a protest outside the aquarium last month - described it as a "blight on the reputation of London's attractions".

A petition launched by the Freedom for Animals campaign group has now received more than 37,000 signatures - with Born Free saying at least two of the birds have never seen the sky.

But a spokesperson for Merlin's conversation team said the current enclosure represents the penguins' natural habitat - and is on the ground floor rather than the basement.

A statement added: "We know that many people care deeply about the gentoo penguins at Sea Life London Aquarium - we do too.

"We have an incredible team of conservationists, animal welfare specialists, and aquarists who are with the penguins every day, making sure they're healthy and thriving.

"And we don't do this alone - we work with some of the best penguin experts in the world, including vets and specialists in penguin behaviour and habitat design."

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Merlin went on to say that "Penguin Point" was built to replicate their natural environment, with climate-controlled temperature and filtered fresh air.

"These are things that can't easily be replicated outdoors and releasing them into the wild simply isn't a safe option for these penguins, who have always lived in human care."

The company added that the penguins' care is a "complex issue" and every decision about their welfare is taken seriously.

"We're open. We're listening. And we've always done what's right for our animals based on expert advice and their individual needs. That's a commitment we stand by."

A DEFRA spokesperson didn't address the Sea Life London Aquarium specifically, but said: "This government is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare.

"We recently launched an overhaul of welfare standards in zoos to strengthen protections and ensure all animals - including gentoo penguins - are cared for in line with best practice."