The trio are outspoken anti-Brexit campaigners who have been pushing for a second referendum.

“Brexit has re-defined the Conservative Party – undoing all the efforts to modernise it. There has been a dismal failure to stand up to the hard line ERG which operates openly as a party within a party, with its own leader, whip and policy.”

Writing to the prime minister to inform her of their decision, they said: “We no longer feel we can remain in the party of a government whose policies and priorities are so firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP.

In a coordinated announcement at 11am on Wednesday morning, Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen resigned to join the newly formed Independent Group.

Three Tory MPs have resigned from the Conservative Party and launched a withering attack on Theresa May for her “dismal failure” to stand up to hardline Brexiteers.

'We can no longer act as bystanders. We are honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first.' Read the letter to the Prime Minister from @heidiallen75 @Anna_Soubry and @sarahwollaston #ChangePolitics pic.twitter.com/1HxHOULbft

The resignations come as May prepares to travel to Brussels for fresh Brexit talks with Jean-Claude Juncker.

In the letter, the Tory MPs added: “The country deserves better. We believe there is a failure of politics in general, not just in the Conservative Party but in both main parties as they move to the fringes, leaving millions of people with no representation. Our politics needs urgent and radical reform and we are determined to play our part.”

“We intend to sit as independents alongside the Independent Group of MPs in the centre ground of British politics. There will be times when we will support the Government, for example, on measures to strengthen our economy, security and improve our public services. But we now feel honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first.

“We will continue to work constructively, locally and nationally, on behalf of our constituents.”

On Tuesday evening Joan Ryan became the eighth MP to defect from Labour to the Independent Group notionally led by Chuka Umunna.

Members of the new group have indicated they will resist demands from the leadership, including shadow chancellor John McDonnell, to step down and seek a fresh mandate from voters in a by-election.

With a poll taken the day after the Independent Group’s launch putting the breakaway MPs on 10% support to Labour’s 26% nationally, Corbyn’s party would be hopeful of seizing back most if not all of the seats.

This morning Labour said the right of recall should be expanded to allow voters to force MPs out of their seats if they switch parties mid-term. </s> Three Conservative MPs have sensationally quit their party to join The Independent Group.

Heidi Allen MP, Anna Soubry MP and Sarah Wollaston MP have written to Prime Minister and Conservative leader Theresa May to say they quit.

They are to join forces with the eight Labour MPs who have formed a new centre-ground Independent Group in the House of Commons, which could eventually become a new political party. 

 

 Writing to the Prime Minister to inform her of their decision, they said the Conservative Party was now dominated by the European Research Group (ERG), a group of pro-Brexit Tories led by high-profile backbencher Jacob Rees Mogg, and by the Northern Ireland party the DUP, which Mrs May has formed a partnership with.

They said: "We no longer feel we can remain in the Party of a Government whose policies and priorities are so firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP. 

 

 “Brexit has re-defined the Conservative Party – undoing all the efforts to modernise it. There has been a dismal failure to stand up to the hard line ERG which operates openly as a party within a party, with its own leader, whip and policy.”

The three MPs are all supporters of a "soft" Brexit or a second referendum which could lead to Brexit being cancelled entirely.

Commenting on the Government’s handling of Brexit, they said: "The final straw for us has been this Government’s disastrous handling of Brexit.

“Following the EU referendum of 2016, no genuine effort was made to build a cross party, let alone a national consensus to deliver Brexit. Instead of seeking to heal the divisions or to tackle the underlying causes of Brexit, the priority was to draw up 'red lines'. The 48% were not only sidelined, they were alienated."

They claimed that both Labour and the Conservative Party had moved to the "fringes", leaving centre-ground voters without anyone to support.

“The country deserves better. We believe there is a failure of politics in general, not just in the Conservative Party but in both main parties as they move to the fringes, leaving millions of people with no representation. Our politics needs urgent and radical reform and we are determined to play our part.”

On joining The Independent Group, they said: "We intend to sit as independents alongside the Independent Group of MPs in the centre ground of British politics.

"There will be times when we will support the Government, for example, on measures to strengthen our economy, security and improve our public services. But we now feel honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first."

Heidi Allen was elected as the Member of Parliament for South Cambridgeshire in 2015. She has criticised the Government over issues such as Universal Credit. 

 

 Anna Soubry is perhaps the most well-known anti-Brexit Tory MP, alongside veteran Conservative Ken Clarke.

She became the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe at the 2010 General Election.

She is a founding member of the People’s Vote campaign for a referendum on the Brexit deal.

Sarah Wollaston was first elected as the MP for Totnes in 2010. Prior to coming into politics she worked for 24 years as an NHS doctor, and she has frequently criticised the Government's approach to the NHS.

Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "saddened" that the MPs had chosen to leave her party, but insisted the Tory party offered "decent, moderate and patriotic politics".

She said: “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.

"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.

"But by delivering on our manifesto commitment and implementing the decision of the British people we are doing the right thing for our country. And in doing so, we can move forward together towards a brighter future.

"I am determined that under my leadership the Conservative Party will always offer the decent, moderate and patriotic politics that the people of this country deserve." </s> Change UK has elected Anna Soubry as their new leader after six of the party’s 11 MPs quit today.

The cross-party group appears to be on the verge of collapse following their humiliating blow at the European Elections.

As many as six of the party’s 11 MPs – including interim leader Heidi Allen – have left the breakaway party.

Soubry said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ Allen, Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Sarah Wollaston, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith had walked out, but insisted there was still a party to lead.

The former Tory MPs is left with just Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey as the only remaining Change UK MPs.

Change UK, formerly known as the Independent Group, said in a statement following the news: ‘Challenging the established political parties was never going to be easy. But we remain determined to fix Britain’s broken politics and we are in this for the long haul.

‘You may have heard the news that some of our MPs group have decided to leave Change UK, which is saddening and disappointing just at the moment we need to roll up our sleeves, challenge the Brexit emergency and champion sensible evidence-based policy-making in the face of the main parties drifting to the ideological fringes.

‘We regret their decision, but it is vital we continue to lead and look forward to future elections – and get started on building our policies and party across the country.’

Announcing the news in a statement, the now independent MPs, said: ‘We are all immensely proud of the team of Change UK candidates and supporters who stepped forward to join us in making the unequivocal case for Remain in the recent EU elections.’

It added: ‘Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shucker, Angela Smith, Chuka Umunna and Sarah Wollaston have made the decision to leave Change UK, returning to supporting each other as an independent grouping of MPs.

‘We believe that our priority right now must be to provide collegiate leadership to bring people together in the national interest.’

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said he would like the MPs to join his party but could also work with them in other ways.

He told the BBC: ‘Most of the group are people who share the same values as we do.

‘My door is open to talk with them, particularly the independent group, about their future.

‘I don’t want to gloat over their failure. It was a failure. But we have got to move on and I want to be positive about it.’

This comes after Allen suggested voting tactically for the Lib Dems in the EU elections, a proposal Soubry later called ‘bizarre’.

Change UK added: ‘We are delighted that Anna Soubry has taken on the role as our new leader, and our hope is to quickly broaden out our nationwide leadership to include some of our key supporters and activists from across the country.

‘Change UK doesn’t just belong to MPs. It belongs to the country and those looking for a sense of hope and leadership to genuinely change our politics, not simply settle for the existing party status quo.

‘We hope that you agree this is a cause worth fighting for – and we will need your help and support going forward.

‘While British politics slips into chaos around us, now is the time to stand firm in our beliefs and champion the mainstream centre ground values we articulated when we left our former parties in the first place.’ </s> Fledgling party to be led by Anna Soubry after departure of Heidi Allen and Chuka Umunna

This article is more than 3 months old

This article is more than 3 months old

Six of Change UK’s 11 MPs, including its spokesman, Chuka Umunna, and interim leader Heidi Allen, have abandoned the fledgling party after its dire performance at the European elections.

Change UK announced that it now had just five MPs, who will be led by the former Conservative business minister and anti-Brexit campaigner Anna Soubry.

The others remaining are the former Labour MPs Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan and Ann Coffey. In their statement, they said they would embark on a “nationwide programme of deliberative democracy”, across the UK.

“Change UK doesn’t just belong to MPs. It belongs to the country and those looking for a sense of hope and leadership to genuinely change our politics,” the five said in a statement.

“We are in it for the long haul,” Leslie said. “It was never going to be easy to challenge the established parties. Of course there’s a whole treacle of cynicism that gets poured on people who try to do something different.”

He said the MPs had agreed that Soubry, who has been a leading figure in the People’s Vote campaign was “absolutely the clearest voice” in the “Brexit maelstrom” – and that they did not want to waste crucial weeks selecting a leader, like the Conservative party.

Soubry said she was “deeply disappointed” that colleagues had resigned. “Now is not the time to walk away, but instead to roll up our sleeves and stand up for the sensible mainstream centre ground which is unrepresented in British politics today,” she said.

Several of the MPs who have quit the party are believed to be considering defecting to the resurgent Liberal Democrats, although they issued a statement saying that they would initially sit as a group of independents.

Allen and Umunna have both been advocating closer cooperation with Vince Cable’s party. Some of their erstwhile colleagues suspect they may have been offered plum seats, or the backing of Lib Dem activists in their existing constituency, if they defect.

The other four MPs to quit the party were Luciana Berger, who fronted its slick press launch on London’s South Bank in February, Gavin Shuker, who had spent months drawing up secret plans for the breakaway group, Sarah Wollaston and Angela Smith.

Only a national government can deliver Britain from its Brexit nightmare | Ed Davey Read more

Change UK, which was initially called the Independent Group, caused a stir in Westminster when it was launched four months ago after the defection of seven Labour MPs. It had hoped to become the catalyst for a major political realignment, attracting a string of other recruits and becoming the rallying point for remainers.

High-profile candidates including the former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell, and the journalists Rachel Johnson and Gavin Esler, joined the party’s list of prospective MEPs.

However, it has been beset by internal disagreements over strategy and management, including how closely to cooperate with other parties.

Change UK’s leading candidate to become an MEP in Scotland, David MacDonald, stepped aside from the race and recommended voting for the Lib Dems. Two other candidates resigned after offensive social media posts were uncovered.

Even before the European election polling day, Johnson questioned its strategy, saying: “If I were running it, we would have one leader and a different name and we would have done a deal with all the other remain parties. Then we would be able to give the Brexit party a fight.”

Timeline Change UK's breakaway MPs – the story so far Show Hide Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Chuka Umunna quit the Labour party. Almost immediately Smith is heavily criticised for referring to people from minority backgrounds as having a 'funny tinge' - for which she later apologises. Three Conservative MPs leave their party to join the group: Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, and Anna Soubry. Joan Ryan, ex-Labour, had joined the group the day before. After renaming itself Change UK, the party gets into a row with petition site Change.org, who release a statement warning it will be 'seeking guidance' over the 'imitation' of its brand. Two election candidates are forced to resign within 24 hours of each other after offensive tweets emerge, including Joseph Russo, the party's top Scotland candidate, writing 'black women scare me'. MP Joan Ryan bizarrely implores the audience at the party's Bath rally to look at their palms: 'It's there, the future is in your hands'. The day before the party's lead Scottish candidate felt the future lay elsewhere - defecting to the Lib Dems a week before European elections. Party leader Heidi Allen suggests Change UK may not exist at general election. 'Will I stand again [...] as Change UK, in whatever format? Let's hope, depends when next general election comes,' she says

In the week before the European parliamentary elections it emerges that Change UK spent £87,000 on Facebook adverts, becoming the biggest single political advertiser on Facebook - including spending at least £1,300 promoting Facebook adverts mistakenly saying it was campaigning to 'remain in the UK'. The party ends up winning 3.4% of the vote at the election, securing no MEPs. Six of Change UK’s 11 MPs, including its spokesman Chuka Umunna and interim leader Heidi Allen, abandon the fledgling party. Former Conservative business minister and anti-Brexit campaigner Anna Soubry becomes leader. Party announces it would be renamed for third time after legal threat from Change.org, and has applied to the Electoral Commission to be known as the Independent Group for Change. Chuka Umunna says there is no room for two centre-ground parties in British politics after he joins the Liberal Democrats 10 days after abandoning Change UK. Four of the original breakaways, Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith form a new group, the Independents. Joining them is former Labour MP John Woodcock. Not to be confused with either independent MPs or the Independent Group for Change, they say they are not forming a party, but are 'a co-operative of independent politicians working with you to find new ways forward in politics'. Sarah Wollaston joins the Liberal Democrats.

Allen, the South Cambridgeshire MP, was appointed interim leader, but Umunna was still widely regarded as Change UK’s public face. Allen admitted she had considered resigning in the run-up to the European elections. She had suggested voting tactically for the Lib Dems in that poll, a proposal Soubry later called “rather bizarre”.

Soubry and Umunna had struck up a close political friendship as co-chairs of the cross-party group on EU relations, which coordinated the tabling of anti-Brexit amendments in parliament.

But the pair clashed over Change UK’s future direction, with Soubry determined that it should continue as a political party, while Umunna became convinced it could only survive by striking up a close alliance with the Lib Dems.

Cable’s party positioned themselves as the leading pro-remain party at the European elections, with a punchy “bollocks to Brexit” slogan. The party’s strong performance, scooping up 20% of the vote, followed gains in local elections in May. Change UK, in contrast, took 3%.

Umunna published a statement on his website on Tuesday, saying he had differed with colleagues over the party’s direction.

“While I believe it should carry on as an organisation, I do not believe Change UK should carry on in its current form. This has put me in a fundamentally different place not only to other Change UK parliamentary colleagues but also its activists and candidates who should be free to take the party in the direction they wish,” he said.

He added that he planned to sit as an independent in parliament, “for the time being”.

With Cable stepping aside, frontrunners for the Lib Dem leadership, Ed Davey and Jo Swinson, have suggested they would welcome new recruits.

Swinson said: “As the European and local election results showed, the old, two-party politics is fracturing. The Liberal Democrats are at the heart of the fight against nationalism and populism and I want to lead this party to grow that movement.”

Davey, who had been more sceptical about the idea of an electoral pact with the breakaway group, said: “Change UK’s swift demise shows that my reluctance from the beginning to discuss mergers and pacts, and to hold firm in our belief that the Liberal Democrats are the clear home for all who want to stop Brexit, was the right call.” </s> Three Conservative MPs who resigned to join a new independent group on Wednesday said Theresa May had allowed their former party to fall prey to hardline Brexiters and declared that the Tory modernising project had been destroyed.

In the latest evidence that Brexit is reshaping the political landscape, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston, all outspoken critics of May’s stance on Europe, said the Conservative party as they had known it under David Cameron was dead.

“I’m not leaving the Conservative party – it has left us,” said Soubry at a hastily convened press conference around the corner from the House of Commons. “The modernising reforms that had taken years to achieve were destroyed.”

Allen was asked if she could ever return to the Conservatives and answered: “If we do our jobs properly, there won’t be a Tory party to go back to.” She added: “We’re about creating something better that is bang smack in the centre ground of British politics that people out there, I am convinced, we are convinced, want.”

The resignation of three Tory MPs is a dire warning to the party | Andrew Gimson Read more

The dramatic resignations – announced shortly before May confronted Jeremy Corbyn at prime minister’s questions – sent shockwaves through Westminster, where MPs had barely digested news of the Labour split.

The move reduces May’s already tenuous working majority to eight, raising still more questions over her authority amid rumours that there could be further Tory defections.

On Wednesday night, Allen told ITV’s Peston that “a third of the party” – around 100 of her former colleagues – shared her frustrations at its direction. The Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve told the BBC: “The government which I am supporting implementing a no-deal Brexit - what would I do? I would not be able to maintain my support of the government. I would have to leave the party.”

The arrival of former Conservatives in the Independent Group, alongside breakaway Labour MPs including Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie, was immediately seized on by the Labour leadership, which stepped up attacks on the defectors.

Play Video 0:52 MP Heidi Allen quits Tories after having to fight 'for benevolence' – video

“The fact is they have formed what is effectively an establishment coalition based on the failed and rejected policies of the past: austerity, corporate tax cuts, privatisation,” Corbyn’s spokesman said.

“It’s precisely because those policies were seen to have failed and were rejected that the direction under the Labour party has changed since Jeremy was elected. And we demonstrated at the general election that a different approach has mass electoral appeal.”

The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, a close ally of Corbyn, compared what he called “Chuka’s coalition” with the national government formed by the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald in 1931, which implemented “deep cuts and attacks on working-class communities”.

The Independent Group (@TheIndGroup) 'We can no longer act as bystanders. We are honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first.' Read the letter to the Prime Minister from @heidiallen75 @Anna_Soubry and @sarahwollaston #ChangePolitics pic.twitter.com/1HxHOULbft

Momentum, the grassroots campaign group set up to back Corbyn’s leadership, announced plans to unleash what it calls “mass canvassing events” in the constituencies of three of the Labour MPs – Umunna, Ann Coffey and Angela Smith – in the weeks ahead.

Laura Parker, Momentum’s national coordinator, said: “Their constituents voted for a Labour MP standing on a Labour manifesto. Now they’ve left the party and joined a Blairite-Tory coalition standing on a completely different platform.”

She said their decision to resign from Labour and sit as independents was “unfair, undemocratic and dishonest. If they care about their constituents rather than their own careers they should step down and fight a byelection.”

These dissident Labour MPs aren’t ‘independent’. They represent the 1% | Ian Lavery Read more

However, some senior Labour figures have taken a markedly more sympathetic tone towards the departing MPs. The shadow trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, said Luciana Berger, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree who blamed antisemitism for her decision to quit Labour, had suffered “disgraceful treatment”.

“I regret deeply that she has left our party, I regret most of all the antisemitic abuse which made her feel it was necessary to do so,” he told MPs in a Commons debate on antisemitism. He described her as a “kind and loving person” who has been “bullied by antisemites to a point that most of us would not have had the strength to bear”.

The Independent Group was formed on Monday by the erstwhile Labour MPs. Joan Ryan became the eighth MP to quit Labour and join the group on Tuesday night. The MPs claimed they felt it necessary to leave Labour because of the leadership’s Brexit policy and failure to tackle antisemitism in the party.

The 11-strong parliamentary grouping formed by the breakaway MPs is not yet a formal political party but its founders hope to swell their numbers further in the coming days. Several potential defectors told the Guardian they were not ready to join the group – “yet”.

Soubry said she and her Tory colleagues had picked up the baton handed to them by Umunna and were now holding it out to other “one-nation Conservatives” dismayed by May’s failure to take a no-deal Brexit off the table.

“Dear friends, now former colleagues, who share those one-nation values and principles will deny it, but I believe in their heads and in their hearts that they know it is over,” she said, adding: “The battle is over. The other side has won.”

“The right wing, the hardline, anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative party from top to tail – they are the Conservative party.”

The group has not yet published any policy proposals, just a set of values, including supporting “a diverse, mixed social market economy” and removing the barriers of “poverty, prejudice and discrimination” to ensure inequalities can be “reduced through the extension of opportunity”.

The challenges of uniting them around a joint policy position were underlined at Wednesday’s press conference when Soubry was asked about the spending cuts of the 2010-15 coalition government, in which she was a minister.

“I think the things we did to the economy were absolutely necessary at the time. I don’t have a problem with that,” she said. Leslie, who as shadow chancellor criticised the 2015 Labour manifesto as too leftwing, later said the party was keen to be forward-looking.

Wollaston pointed out that after the prime minister lost the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal by an unprecedented margin of 230 votes last month, she promised to seek a cross-party solution – but the first group she consulted was the hard Brexit European Research Group.

What next for the Independent Group? Here’s a winning manifesto | Glen O’Hara Read more

In their joint resignation letter, the three MPs said: “We no longer feel we can remain in the party of a government whose policies and priorities are so firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP. Brexit has redefined the Conservative party.”

But Allen, who represents South Cambridgeshire, said of the new grouping that she felt “so excited, in a way I haven’t felt since I was first elected … I, we, are prepared to dare to dream that this could be possible.”

The latest defections are unlikely to change the parliamentary arithmetic in next week’s crucial votes, because the 11 MPs were already confirmed Brexit rebels. But they underlined the sense that both May and Corbyn have struggled to contain the deep divisions in their parties, on Brexit and beyond.

A string of ministers are privately warning that they are prepared to vote against the government and back Yvette Cooper’s effort to force an extension to article 50, rather than allow May to continue using the threat of a no-deal Brexit as a bargaining chip.

Before flying to Brussels for talks with Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, May said she was “saddened” by the decisions of Soubry, Allen and Wollaston to resign, saying they were “people who have given dedicated service to our party over many years, and I thank them for it”.

Despite the divisions over Brexit, she said: “I am determined that under my leadership the Conservative party will always offer the decent, moderate and patriotic politics that the people of this country deserve.”

The work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, tweeted that she was keen to continue to work with the departing Tory MPs on “a number of important issues”, including Brexit, in the future.

Soubry suggested she and her colleagues would support the prime minister in any future no-confidence vote in the government, because now was not the time for a general election. May survived a no-confidence vote with a majority of 19 last month.

Despite the extraordinary drama, neither party leader mentioned the resignations at prime minister’s questions, as the 11-strong Independent Group sat perched high up on the opposition benches.

• The caption to the graphic was amended on 21 February 2019 because an earlier version omitted to credit the Institute for Government. </s> Anna Soubry has become leader of Change UK after six MPs quit the party.

The newly formed party split as high-profile figures like Chuka Umunna and ex-leader Heidi Allen walked out.

Along with former Tory minister Ms Soubry, the remaining Change UK MPs are Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey.

The split comes after the party, originally called the Independent Group, performed poorly in the European Parliament elections.

The six MPs who quit Change UK will now sit as independents.

Ms Soubry, who quit the Tories in protest at its Brexit stance, said: "I'm deeply disappointed that at such a crucial time in British politics our former colleagues have made this decision.

"Now is not the time to walk away, but instead to roll up our sleeves and stand up for the sensible mainstream centre ground which is unrepresented in British politics today.

"Going forward, the Change UK MPs are as determined to fix Britain's broken politics as we were when we left our former parties.

"Challenging the established broken political parties was never going to be easy.

"We registered as a political party to stand in the European elections but it was never our sole purpose.

"It is vital we continue leading the fight against a damaging Brexit, pressing for a People's Vote and being prepared to revoke Article 50 in the face of a no-deal Brexit.

"But Brexit is not the cause of our broken politics, it is a symptom of it. So we now look forward to providing a real choice for the public in future elections and building our policies through the evidence-led, deliberative policy making project we were planning before the European elections."

A joint statement from the six MPs leaving Change UK, tweeted by Ms Allen and Sarah Wollaston, said that the party had boosted the European Parliament campaign and turnout.

The MPs, who also include Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker, and Angela Smith said they would be "supporting each other as an independent grouping".

The MPs added: "We believe that our priority right now must be to provide collegiate leadership to bring people together in the national interest.

"We know the landscape will continue to shift within the political environment and have concluded that by returning to sit as independents, we will be best placed to work cross-party and respond flexibly.

"We wish our colleagues well as they continue to build Change UK."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said he would like the MPs to join his party but could also work with them in other ways.

He told the BBC: "Most of the group are people who share the same values as we do.

"My door is open to talk with them, particularly the independent group, about their future.

"I don't want to gloat over their failure. It was a failure. But we have got to move on and I want to be positive about it."

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Find old stories in our online Archives and search for jobs, motors and property, or place an advert or family notice here </s> • Change UK rocked after 6 of its 11 MPs quit the struggling party.
• The party was formed by former Conservative and Labour MPs in February.
• But it has struggled in both the polls and the ballot box and failed to win a single seat in this week’s European Parliament elections.
• Former Conservative MP Anna Soubry was elected as new leader.

LONDON – Six of Change UK’s 11 MPs dramatically quit the party on Tuesday, just five months after it was established, following a disastrous performance in the European elections.

Change UK issued a statement on Tuesday saying the party now consisted of just five MPs.

Chuka Umunna, Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith all confirmed they were leaving the party.

The remaining MPs are Anna Soubry, Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, Mike Gapes, and Ann Coffey. Soubry will replace Heidi Allen as permanent party leader.

In a statement, Soubry said: “I’m deeply disappointed that at such a crucial time in British politics our former colleagues have made this decision.

“Now is not the time to walk away, but instead to roll up our sleeves and stand up for the sensible mainstream centre ground which is unrepresented in British politics today. “Going forward, the Change UK MPs are as determined to fix Britain’s broken politics as we were when we left our former parties.

In a separate statement, the party’s departing MPs said they remained “proud” of what the party had achieved but had “concluded that by returning to sit as independents, we will be best placed to work cross party and respond flexibly.”

One Change UK source told Business Insider that the six departing MPs had been “spooked” by the European election results and had started to “worry about keeping their seats” at the next general election.

Some but not all of the six MPs are expected to eventually join the Liberal Democrats, sources familiar with Change UK told Business Insider. For now they will sit as independent representatives in the House of Commons.

Change UK launched in February as The Independent Group when eleven MPs quit Labour and the Conservatives in protest against the leaders and state of their former parties, including their policies on Brexit.

The party had hoped to replace the Liberal Democrats as the most popular centrist party in British politics and eventually challenge the Tories and Labour as a party of government.

However, they struggled to gain traction with the public, following a series of name changes and blunders, including failing to submit a compliant logo to electoral authorities in time for the European elections.

The party went on to win just over three per cent of the national vote and no Members of the European Parliament.

There also been disagreement within Change UK over whether the new party should work together with other anti-Brexit parties in elections, with members like MPs Chris Leslie and Anna Soubry arguing against it.

Soubry publicly criticised the party’s interim leader Allen on the eve of the European elections, for suggesting that anti-Brexit Brits should vote tactically and back the Lib Dems.

“I think it is rather bizarre for an interim leader on the eve of poll to tell people essentially not to vote for their party,” Soubry last month.

“You do not stand candidates and then say to people ‘we are going through a complete farce please don’t vote for them.”

The Lib Dems went on to win 20% of the vote and continue to receive a boost in post-election polls, leading in one recent survey. </s> Three MPs have quit the Conservative Party to join the new Independent Group in a major blow to prime minister Theresa May’s authority.

Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston hit out at Mrs May’s “disastrous” handling of Brexit as they quit. The three – who will join the eight ex-Labour MPs who have formed TIG – claimed Mrs May had failed to stand up to the “hard line” European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers.

The move poses a fresh headache for Mrs May as she prepared to face prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons before heading to Brussels for Brexit talks with Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday evening.

In a letter to Mrs May, the three MPs said: “We no longer feel we can remain in the party of a Government whose policies and priorities are so firmly in the grip of the ERG and DUP.

“Brexit has re-defined the Conservative Party – undoing all the efforts to modernise it. There has been a dismal failure to stand up to the hard line ERG which operates openly as a party within a party, with its own leader, whip and policy.” They added: “The final straw for us has been this Government’s disastrous handling of Brexit.”

In a statement, Mrs May said she was disappointed by the decision of the three to quit the 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. But by delivering on our manifesto commitment and implementing the decision of the British people we are doing the right thing for our country. And in doing so, we can move forward together towards a brighter future.”

Mrs May said she was determined the Conservative Party would still offer “decent, moderate and patriotic politics that the people of this country deserve”.

On Tuesday evening Labour MP Joan Ryan became the eighth Labour MP to resign and join the breakaway Independent Group of Labour exiles, who include Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna.

The former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke said on Wednesday he believed some Tory MPs were considering joining the new Independent Group, which is expected to be a precursor to a new political party.

“Certainly some members of parliament are getting very fed up,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“There are some, not including me, who probably are contemplating leaving if the party moves too far to the right and no longer represents what they regard as the mainstream Conservative views they have held for all the previous years. I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major also warned that his party had been captured by pro-Brexit right-wingers and praised the courage of the breakaway Labour MPs

“At the moment, there are people who – for now – may have their boots within the Conservative or Labour parties, but not their minds, nor their hearts,” the former Tory prime minister told an audience at the University of Glasgow on Tuesday, warning that both parties were being, “manipulated by fringe opinion”.

Ms Ryan, the MP for Enfield North, said she had been a member for four decades but blamed her departure on what she claimed was the Labour leadership’s “dereliction of duty” in tackling antisemitism.

Her resignation makes her the eighth Labour MP to join the group, which also includes Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Ann Coffey and Chris Leslie.

Ms Ryan claimed there were “many very, very unhappy” MPs in Labour who could come to a similar decision and join the Independent Group of MPs. Ian Austin, MP for Dudley South, told his local paper, the Express and Star he would make a decision about his own future by the end of the week.

“People, me included, are going to be thinking long and hard about the position we’re in now,” he said. – Guardian/PA </s> Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson has warned that unless the party changes, more MPs will defect to the new Independent Group of MPs – following the seven who quit on Monday. Westminster is also awash with rumours some Tory MPs could throw in their lot with the newly-created gang. Here are some of the MPs that are likely candidates to defect, from both parties.

Top of any list of potential defectors has to be the MP for Broxtowe. Anna Soubry, a former minister, is the most outspoken pro-EU MP on the Tory benches. She has repeatedly bemoaned not only Theresa May’s Brexit plan, but her abandonment of One Nation conservatism. Retweets are not necessarily endorsements, but Soubry chose to highlight Chuka Umunna’s speech launching the new Independent Group on Monday. And she has worked closely with the former Labour MP on the People’s Vote campaign pushing for a second referendum.

Sarah Wollaston, the MP for Totnes, has already floated the idea she will fight the next election as an independent if the government peruses a no-deal Brexit. In recent days, the pro-EU chair of the health committee has been targeted for deselection by Brexiteers in her local party. She has warned the “entryism” from the right is “destroying” the Conservative Party.

Heidi Allen, the South Cambridgeshire MP, is also under threat of deselection from her local party for her pro-EU views. Allen has been a constant thorn in the government’s side with her criticism of its Universal Credit welfare system. She has previously said she would resign the party whip if Boris Johnson ever became party leader.

Ian Murray, the MP for Edinburgh South, issued what looked like an ultimatum to Jeremy Corbyn after the gang of seven quit on Monday. He told the Labour leader he had to decide whether he wanted to carry on presiding over “a culture of bullying and intolerance where his own MPs feel unwelcome”. Earlier this week, he also dismissed the “ridiculous” loyalty pledge to Corbyn that was circulating online.

John Mann, the MP for Bassetlaw, is a long-time critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. And he hit out at those on the left of the party who were glad seven MPs had quit. “Those celebrating their departure are people who are not spending time on the doorstep listening to voters. Every week brilliant activists are quietly quitting, seeing the Labour Party as not for them,” he said. While Mann said there was a “fundamental flaw” in the party being focused on a pro-EU agenda, he said the defections were just the “first charge”.

It would not be a huge surprise if Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley North, was one of the MPs to decide to jump ship. He said today he was “thinking long and hard” about whether to remain in the Labour Party. And he defended those who had already decided to leave. “What my seven friends did yesterday is the opposite of careerism. It would be easy to keep your head down, promise loyalty, ignore the racism and extremism and keep your job,” he said. This list is, of course, not exhaustive. BuzzFeed UK reported on Monday that around 30 Labour MPs were originally considering joining the breakaway group on Monday.
Three British MPs – Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen – defect from the Conservative Party to The Independent Group, citing their opposition to Brexit and the party's adoption of UKIP policies. This brings the total number of The Independent Group MPs to eleven following recent defections from Labour.