Seven Labour MPs leave party, form "The Independent Group"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47278902

Seven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism.

They are: Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey.

Ms Berger said Labour had become institutionally anti-Semitic and she was "embarrassed and ashamed" to stay.

Mr Corbyn said he was "disappointed" the MPs had felt unable to continue working for the policies that "inspired millions" at the 2017 election.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the "honourable thing for them to do" would be to stand down as MPs and seek to return to Parliament in by-elections.

---

Wow :O . Could this be the beginning of a new political party? I have my doubts, because it's difficult to pin this group down (they have different reasons for opposing Corbyn, but for the most part, they seem to be opposing him from the left on Brexit, and from the right on everything else).

Still, will be very interesting to see how this develops. These seven aren't the only independents in Parliament (there are six other ex-Labour independents, one ex-Liberal Democrat independent, and one who was just elected as an independent), so this group might expand even further!

I guess we'll have to wait and see how Corbyn does deal with it, then.

By the way, The Independent Group is now up to 11 members. There was an eighth one from Labour, as well as three from the Conservatives, who left that party in protest over their 'Hard Brexit' stance.

No more members; however, they are in the early stages of forming a new party:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/02/independent-group-mps-brexit

There is a bit of a problem, though. They occupy a similar ideological niche to the Liberal Democrats (pro-EU but otherwise centrist), so the danger is that they'll just end up splitting that vote with the Lib Dems. On the other hand, they probably don't want to merge with the Lib Dems, because that party still has a lot of baggage from previous mistakes, and the merged party would just inherit all of that baggage.

I suppose the best way forward is for The Independent Group to agree not to run candidates against the Lib Dems, and vice versa.