Three amigos hit out:
ANOTHER day, another split.
The Brexit volcano is unleashing further changes to the landscape of British politics.
The “three amigos” of Allen, Soubry and Wollaston cited various reasons for their disaffection with Theresa May’s Tory Party but the key one was Brexit.
Over the past few months, the Remainer trio have not been backward in expressing their growing alarm at the prospect of a no-deal Brexit and dismay at the Prime Minister’s “disastrous” handling of the talks with Brussels.
At a Westminster press conference, Ms Soubry accused a “purple Momentum” of hard-right “zealots” of trying to force out MPS on the Remain wing of the party through de-selections.
The Nottinghamshire MP noted that the right wing had destroyed every Tory leader for the last 40 years and were now running the show from top to toe. “They are the Conservative Party,” she declared.
Her new Independent Group colleague, Ms Allen, did not hold back either.
The South Cambridgeshire MP claimed Mrs May had been “bullied into submission” by the likes of Jacob Rees-mogg and his friends in the
European Research Group of Conservatives and was, consequently, “dragging the country and Parliament kicking and screaming to the edge of a no-deal abyss”.
Asked if she might one day rejoin the Tories, Ms Allen replied tersely: “If we do our job right, there won’t be a Tory Party any more.”
As with newfound colleagues in the Independent Group, now dubbed TIG, who claimed the hard Left had taken over Labour, so they complained yesterday the hard Right – dubbed
“Blukip” – had taken over theirs.
And like the Labour split on Monday, the Tory Tigers claimed that they expected more Conservatives to join the new Westminster grouping, whose members yesterday for the first time gathered in a small huddle on the opposition green benches behind the SNP.
None of them stood up to ask a question during PMQS, once again dominated by exchanges on Brexit, but no doubt they are biding their time.
If, as is suspected, the group attracts more MPS, then the magic number is 36.
Should Chukka Umunna, the putative group leader, and his new chums reach that figure, then they will oust the SNP’S
Ian Blackford from the prized position of being able to ask two questions at PMQS every week.
Plus, it might also mean the Highland MP will have to vacate his oak-lined suite of offices off the Commons committee corridor reserved for the leader of the third party.
Were the Independent Group to reach 36 MPS, then its transmogrification into a party would seem inevitable.
Already, after just 72 hours of drama, there is talk at Westminster of a potential future merger of TIG and the Liberal Democrats.
Sir Vince Cable has offered the “hand of friendship” to the new grouping and suggested an electoral pact, whereby they do not clash in the battle for seats to maximise the push to oust Labour and Tory candidates.
Senior Libdem sources have pointed to the prospect of a merger, albeit with understandable qualifications given the uncertainties of Brexit and just how a group of former Labour and Tory MPS could hold together a centrist alliance with the already established Libdems.
Starting a new party from scratch is very difficult. Merging with an already established one with its structures and donors in place would be a great help.
Mr Umunna has pointed to how politics is broken and that a new centrist force could help to rebuild it in a more positive light.
What could give the Independent Group an even bigger boost would be if the Brexit volcano spewed forth a no-deal outcome with even Cabinet ministers resigning their positions. In such a scenario could the likes of Amber Rudd and David Mundell even contemplate becoming a TIGER?