MPs ‘plot new party to replace Labour’
LEADING Remain- supporting MPs are discussing forming a new ‘centrist’ party to oppose Brexit, it was claimed last night.
Tory backbencher Anna Soubry, who was sacked from her government job by Theresa May, appeared to suggest she would consider defecting to a new ‘moderate, middle way’ party.
There are also rumours MPs disillusioned with Jeremy Corbyn could leave Labour to try to form a new movement.
And there have been widespread suggestions ex-chancellor George Osborne has sounded out MPs about a new party.
Details of the plotting emerged yesterday in Left-wing magazine the New Statesman. Its front page called for a new opposition in the style of the Lord Kitchener Wants you WW1 poster. It said: ‘Wanted: An Opposition. The Labour Party has collapsed, a hard Brexit is looming. Who will speak for Liberal Britain?’
Its editor, Jason Cowley, compared Labour’s struggle under Mr Corbyn to living with the smell of a rat that has died behind the wall of your house.
Miss Soubry, a vocal opponent of Brexit, told the magazine: ‘If it could somehow be the voice of a moderate, sensible, forward-thinking, visionary middle way, with open minds – better get on with it.’
Last night Miss Soubry told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m a proud one nation Ken Clarke Tory. Always have been.’
The New Statesman also reported that, a week after the EU referendum, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was approached by a close ally of Mr Osborne, who suggested the creation of a new centrist party called ‘ the Democrats’. Mr Farron told the magazine: ‘I’m all ears.’ But he said the ‘most effective thing’ he could do was to rebuild the Lib Dems.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg failed to rule out joining a new party. He told the magazine that ‘ you’ve got to start with the ideas’.
yesterday he further fuelled speculation when, during a debate, he defied Commons convention to move down from his party’s backbenches to chat to Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, on the Labour frontbench. But last night a spokesman said the suggestion he would quit the Lib Dems was ‘nonsense’.
Miss Soubry also criticised Brexiteer MPs, claiming they tried to undermine Chancellor Philip Hammond’s position on Brexit by attacking his National Insurance Budget rise.
She said: ‘ The Right wing of the party flex their muscle for no other reason than to see him off. And that’s what they’ll do. These people are ruthless, this is their life’s work, and nobody is going to get in their way.’