Chuka Umunna identifies the Independent Group’s big flaws

Chuka Umunna has quit the Labour party and set up a new political party. Calling itself the Independent Group, Umunna said the party wants to go about ‘building a new politics’. But in a Q and A with journalists, Mr S couldn’t help but notice that Umunna also managed to spell out quite clearly the new group’s big problem. He told reporters:

‘The usual way things are often done in Westminster, is a little bit, you know, you have a podium, someone goes up and tells you how it is going to be.’

Perhaps this message might have been somewhat more compelling if Umunna had not just been addressing journalists in Westminster…from behind a podium.

Umunna then went on to say this:

‘The idea that you can cook this up in Westminster is not the way people want things to be done.’

But Mr S thinks it is hard not to see the new party as an idea…cooked up in Westminster.