Less of a rally, more like a large book group

Their campaign for the European elections hasn’t got off to the smoothest start. But Change UK, the newly formed party for Remainers who want to stop Brexit, are doing their best to look on the bright side.

“According to Yougov,” trumpeted Chuka Umunna yesterday, “we’re currently in third place in London! Well ahead of the Conservatives!”

What Mr Umunna didn’t add was that – according to the very same poll of Londoners – the party in second place is the Brexit Party. Which means

that, in a city that voted 60 per cent Remain, Change UK is apparently lagging behind a party led by Nigel Farage.

Mr Umunna, the ex-labour MP for Streatham, was speaking at the first in a series of Change UK rallies.

At least, they’re being advertised as such – but “rally”, in this instance, didn’t feel like quite the right word.

When you hear the word “rally”, you picture a park or town square, crammed with hundreds or even thousands of chanting supporters, speeches booming from loudspeakers or megaphones, and knots of agog passers-by who have stopped to listen.

Yesterday’s Change UK rally, by contrast, consisted of perhaps as many as 150 people, all of them seated in neat little rows, in a hired conference suite just round the corner from Parliament. There was no chanting, just clapping, and anyone who wished to comment or ask a question raised his or her hand politely.

Party placards were stacked on a table at the back of the room, but I didn’t see anybody waving one. In atmosphere, it felt less like a rally, and more like an unusually large book group.

Still, there was no doubting the attendees’ commitment. One supporter, remarkably, had come all the way from Barrow-in-furness in Cumbria. He’d got up at 4am, and travelled 300 miles, just to be there.

“You are amazing!” gasped Anna Soubry, the ex-tory MP for Broxtowe. “A true hero! How did you get here?”

By train, replied the man from Barrow.

“Change UK!” barked Ms Soubry. “We believe in public transport!”

This was good to learn, because one of her party’s problems is that, so far, the wider public doesn’t seem to have any idea what Change UK believe in.

According to another Yougov poll – this one nationwide – nearly half of voters say they don’t know where Change UK stand on Brexit – and a further 13 per cent think that they actually support it.

Not that you can blame that 13 per cent. Looking at the party’s name, the assumption is perfectly logical. “‘Change UK – The Independent Group’? Well, Brexit will change the UK – and make the UK independent. They must be pro-brexit.”

But perhaps this is actually Change UK’S cunning plan for the European elections: trick Brexiteers into voting for them.

And if they can do that, they might even catch up with Nigel Farage in London.