3 March 2019 | OPINION
The eleven MPs who now sit as independents do not have a coherent platform on which to stand. They know not what they are for, only what they oppose. The only issue that binds them is their opposition to Brexit.
They claim that their former parties have become too extreme on the issue of Europe and that a new centre ground party is required. The former Labour MPs argue that by not embracing a second referendum sooner, Jeremy Corbyn has betrayed the country to provide meaningful opposition to the Tory government. They have now welcomed his pledge to back a second referendum.
The three former Conservative MPs argue that the European Research Group (ERG) has taken over the party and it is has morphed into ‘blukip’. This is a farcical assertion. Since the 2017 election, the majority of cabinet resignations over Brexit have been by leave supporting MPs. What does that tell us? It tells us the Government’s position has been firmly leaning towards the softer end of the Brexit spectrum. In a recent statement to the Commons, the Prime Minister sided with the Europhiles in her cabinet and party by effectively ruling out leaving with no deal at the end of March.
Anna Soubry MP told Newsnight last week that she had urged Theresa May to adopt the policy of UK single market and customs union membership. She failed to mention that such a compromise would not fulfil the referendum result of 2016. Former Prime Minister David Cameron stated that voting to leave in the referendum meant voting to leave the single market and the customs union. The Government funded leaflet posted through everyone’s letterbox during the campaign made this very clear. As did the manifestos of both main political parties in 2017.
Theresa May’s Brexit deal is very close to customs union membership and the backstop might keep us in indefinitely. By opposing this, the ERG are not extreme, rather they are playing an important role in holding the government to account on their referendum and election pledges. By contrast, Remainers in the Cabinet have been openly flouting collective responsibility and briefing against the government’s leverage of no deal. Such infighting against a policy of no deal being the default option, simply because we cannot see it appearing on the horizon, is undermining the Prime Ministers negotiating position at such a crucial stage. The EU now have no incentive to offer any concessions to the deal knowing the ‘can’ can just be kicked further down the road.
In 2017, leaving the EU along with its customs union and single market were manifesto pledges made by both the Conservative and Labour parties. This was the platform that all eleven now Independent MPs stood on. In the space of eighteen months this commitment is now being dismissed by these same MPs as an extreme position. They all propose a people’s vote with the option to remain in the EU. Considering their views have changed, if they were consistent in their logic they would hold by-elections.
UK politics has long needed a shake up to stay representative of the people it claims to serve. Brexit can be the catalyst to achieving this. Unfortunately this new independent group of MPs only ambition is to maintain the status quo.
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Toby Amiel is a political commentator and postgraduate student at King’s College London.
Follow him on Twitter @TrainSpotter747
