She was no-confidenced by her local party after, among other things, she was filmed in discussion about seemingly shady funding with Israeli diplomat Shai Masot, who left the UK in disgrace in January 2018:

Link to tweet

Anna Soubry
Heidi Allen
Sarah Wollenstone

The saner Tories are starting to leave their party as well.

I get the feeling this is going to be a bigger deal than it feels right now. Some of the talking heads on Newsnight and such are throwing some potentially large numbers of defectors around with the consensus that now is too early to tell but I'm guessing after March 29 the floodgates may open.

Not overly sure what to make of it all yet.

There have been wry jibes from some journalists on Twitter that their colleagues will be disappointed because they've now lost some of those "party sources" that were so useful to hang stories about disarray in Labour and the Tories on. The fact that people (including journos) had to hurriedly Google most of the IG's members once they announced to find out who the heck they were is quite telling, as is the fact that some of them were facing deselection by their local parties before the next election.

There's already loose talk of the Independent Group displacing the SNP as the third largest party in Westminster. Some pollsters are already projecting 6-14% for the IG at a general election.

It's not even a political party at this point, and at time of that polling there were only seven of them, none elected as IG members, so this seems nonsensically premature! Their very name makes them a non-starter in Scotland (pro-independence voters aren't known for being centrist, and unionist centrists are unlikely to vote for anything with "independent" in its name)!

Its lead spokesperson, Chuka Umunna, has in the past denied seeing evidence of antisemitism in the Labour Party before deciding that it was institutionally racist, opposed a second referendum before deciding he wanted one, and spent most of yesterday trying to rationalize and condemn, with some charitable attempt at understanding, Angela Smith's bonkers "funny tinge" comment, so their messaging, among all the other first-day mishaps, is less than clear.

Are they an anti-(Labour)antisemitism group? A pro-Remain group? Both? What other policies do they have that their members (including today's influx of three Tories) can agree on and form a coherent platform?

It's a far cry from when the SDP was set up. That at least had most of its ducks in a row and some relatively big hitters on board before it launched.

This seems ill-timed, just at this crucial point when the last thing that's needed is a handy distraction for the media to run away with, shambolic, and having gone public way too early. If they'd launched a year ago, there might have been time for some momentum to build up and the edges to be knocked off their public face before we got to the threshold of Brexit. As it is, I can't see them achieving much of use, and after Brexit, if they're still around, they're likely to just muddy the electoral waters.

That makes 12 at the present time.

If this article's to be believed, there was supposed to be a much bigger splash when it was launched:

....of the "centrist" bit of the political spectrum becoming like the People's Front of Judea scene in Life of Brian. I fully sympathise with people leaving the 2 main parties, but there is still a need for politicians to work together.

Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2019, 10:50 AM - Edit history (1)

The splitters come pre-split!

I think this was the danger of identifying as a "group" (let alone a party in the making) so early on. It seems like a tactic that might have worked with the larger numbers originally envisaged (assuming the article I quoted above is right), though the predominance of ex-Labour figures would likely have put off joiners from any other parties, but is in danger of proving a damp squib that could occupy ground that might be better occupied by different initiatives.

But with only an initial 7, then what some in the media have been projecting as a trickle of defectors over the next few weeks (shades of the trickle effect attempted when there were a number of sequential resignations in the early moves to depose Corbyn), with the possibility of much more major moves if no deal does come about, it's having a different effect. I'm glad, at least, that pressure's finally being applied to both May and Corbyn.

It might have been more effective at this stage for the IGers to resign their party whips and dare their parties to expel them, keeping their powder dry. That may be what some who haven't made any moves yet have in mind (given that the whips don't seem to be holding anyway!).

Still, the IG is going to have a place on the next BBC Question Time panel, so that may give some satisfaction to the "Leslie-Umunna faction".

I do think a big hitter with an engaging media manner like Ken Clarke making a move would create a whole new ball game (heaven help me, I'd never have envisaged seeing him as a voice of sanity). Whether he could tolerate the company and egos in the IG is another matter!

Not surprised by this as he is Angela Smith's husband. Up for reelection this year and by all accounts there were attempts to deselect him on account of his being in possession of an offensive wife.

Labour locally does appear to be a real mess.