The seven MPs who left Labour on Monday all cited irreconcilable differences with the party’s Brexit policy, and the way it has dealt with antisemitism and bullying allegations. Yet there are other clear dividing lines between the group and some of Labour’s key policies.
Few of the MPs had been serial rebels under Corbyn, apart from on Brexit. Chuka Umunna in particular has been a leading figure in the People’s Vote campaign for a second referendum and led a parliamentary rebellion on an amendment to the Queen’s speech, which said the UK should remain in the single market and customs union.
All of the rebel MPs have backed a second referendum, which is not yet Labour policy.
On almost all other domestic issues, including welfare and the economy, MPs have voted with the party whip, though Umunna, Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey all voted in favour of strikes in Syria against Islamic State, the opposite way to Corbyn, although it was a free vote.
There are other differences in emphasis and principle – even if any platform for the new group could change considerably if and when more MPs join.
Foreign affairs and national security
Apart from Brexit and antisemitism, national security policy is a key difference. The group’s statement of intent says the “first duty of government must be to defend its people and do whatever it takes to safeguard Britain’s national security”.
Gavin Shuker was among the MPs who cited Corbyn’s public doubts about the culpability of the Russian state in the Skripal novichok poisonings as a key reason for his departure, as well as the Labour leader’s historic anti-interventionism and Nato scepticism.
“We don’t think every problem in the world is created by the west,” Shuker said. “We want to work with other countries around the world to tackle our shared challenges, not turn our face…
