Last month fringes of the Labour and The Conservative party resigned their respective whips and joined forces to form The Independent Group (of MP’s). There was a firestorm in the UK media over the resignations and what it could mean for UK Politics. This new group of MP’s including Chuka Umunna, Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen seem to have little in common except disdain for the British public’s decision to leave the EU.
However, in coming weeks and months the TiG will have hurdles to overcome posing questions such as “Should we form a political party?”, “How do we deal with the media?”, “What should our policies be?” and probably most poignant – “How do we deal with each-other?”
The media has been interested in these 11 MP’s over the last two years because of their rebellious and somewhat maverick status within their own parties. Besides the media firestorm which ensued after their defections they are likely to encounter issues penetrating media outlets because in effect joining forces to create a (quasi) political party makes them less maverick and just another set of government opposition MP’s. Soubry and Allen are likely to get the most media attention as they are opposing the party they were once part of – (which wont do much for Chuka’s ego and self-aggrandisement)
The 11 MP’s currently part of The Independent Group have differing views on almost everything and its difficult to see how they could actually establish and whip a functioning political party. Below are the voting records on a number of issues for Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Chuka:
Proportional Representation:
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: Against
Anna Soubry: Against
Welfare Increases:
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: For
Anna Soubry: Against
Raising Tax for incomes over £150k:
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: Against
Anna Soubry: Against
Public Owend Railways:
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: Against
Anna Soubry: Against
Foreign Policy (Iraq War Investigation and ISIL Strikes)
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: For
Anna Soubry: For
Royal Mail Privatisation:
Chuka Umunna: Against
Heidi Allen: For
Anna Soubry: For
Peoples Vote:
Chuka Umunna: For
Heidi Allen: For
Anna Soubry: For
Even if we look at something as simple as the vote on Badger Culling:
Chuka Umunna: Against
Heidi Allen: For
Anna Soubry: For
What this says to me is besides thwarting the decision of the British electorate, the independent group are going to struggle to work together over the initial self-aggrandisement and back patting.
Yesterday their first policy was released on welfare reform – something which Heidi Allen was always vocal about as a member of the Conservatives, but because of the Labour investigation by the Equalities Watchdog and Cabinet Ministers fumbling about, nobody actually heard about. – the media point proven.
I wouldn’t feel safe travelling by “Publicly Owend Railways”.
If they were honest they’d say “We” don’t have any policy position, individual “we”s have their own policy positions. You can’t expect independents to be whipped to a common position, that’s the complete opposite of being an independent.