20/02/2019
The wheels are falling off the two main political parties in Westminster, with eight Labour MPs and three Conservative MPs having resigned their party memberships this week; all of them joining together under the banner of the 'Independent Group'.
The seven Labour MPs who announced their resignation from the Labour Party on Monday 18th February 2019 were; Chuka Umunna, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Luciana Berger. They were joined a day later by Joan Ryan, who also resigned her Labour whip, claiming that the Labour Party had become “infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism”.
The trio of Tories; Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen explained their decision to join the group at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. They alleged that the Conservatives had been moving more and more to the right, adopting UKIP style politics and seeming to be hell bent on a hard Brexit.
Anna Soubry, who has been the victim of harassment by pro-Brexit agitators, said she had given the matter “a great deal of thought" and that other Conservative MPs were close to the edge. “You don’t join a political party to fight it … The truth is the battle is over and the other side have won.”
Sarah Wollaston had concluded she could no longer recommend that people voted Conservative. “Would I have joined the party in 2009 … if the party had looked then as it did today? And the answer is no,” she said. “And if I wouldn’t encourage others to vote Conservative in a general election, then how can I possibly continue with the Conservative whip?”
Heidi Allen said she had been driven out of the party not only by Brexit but by Theresa May's government record on austerity, saying, “I believed I was part of a party that worked collaboratively, welcomed knowledge and had the capacity to feel, but I have slowly realised that I have not.”
Theresa May confirmed her disappointed at the decision of the three to quit her party. “I am saddened by this decision. These are people who have given dedicated service to our party over many years, and I thank them for it,” she said. “Of course, the UK’s membership of the EU has been a source of disagreement both in our party and our country for a long time. Ending that membership after four decades was never going to be easy."
The fact is that May has been led by the nose by the extreme Brexiteers; who, having lied through the referendum campaign, have now continued to spout lies about the population having voted for a hard Brexit. In the lead up to the vote, there was talk of the Norway, Switzerland or Canada models as a real alternative to our continued EU membership. However, the hardliners are rejecting all such ideas and instead demanding the unattainable and threatening the oblivion of a no deal Brexit.
These MPs, from both parties, are quite right to have taken the stance they have.
My only concern, is why they haven't given their support to only party to offer real opposition to Brexit. Aligning themselves with the Liberal Democrats.
They do appear to be the only alternative that has the chance of stopping Brexit and, perhaps with a different leader, I would like to see them form a government.
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