The first thing to note about the ‘South Bank seven’ is that they are nothing like the four former Labour cabinet ministers who split the party in 1981, forming the SDP. The Gang of Four were national figures who between them had held every major office of state, bar the top job. Most of the MPs who announced from a swish venue on the South Bank that they were quitting Labour to set up a new outfit have little to no public profile. They’re more likely to be an answer on Pointless than stopped in the street for a photo.
While the most well-known member, Chuka Umunna, has high ambitions (his colleagues joke that he sees himself as the UK’s answer to Emmanuel Macron), his most senior role to date was as Ed Miliband’s shadow business secretary. His colleague Chris Leslie is the only one of the group to have held ministerial office — as a junior minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Nevertheless, their decision to set up the Independent Group has caused deep unease in Labour’s high command. The concern among Team Corbyn is that more MPs may follow. If a rival party develops, it could tap into Labour’s vote share and keep Corbyn out of Downing Street. One more Labour MP, Joan Ryan, has already quit the party to join the new group. Meanwhile, three Conservative MPs have also since joined in protest at their party’s Brexit stance.
The original splitters cited concerns over Labour’s Brexit position, the failure to tackle anti-Semitism and Corbyn’s unsuitability to be prime minister as the reasons behind their breakaway. There are many remaining Labour MPs who share all these concerns.
But how many more MPs defect depends as much on how the new group fares in its first few weeks as it does on Corbyn’s response.
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