More MPs ready to quit Labour, Corbyn warned
Watson says party must change course after ‘gang of seven’ leaves
Jeremy Corbyn faces a historic Labour rupture after being warned that more MPs are ready to follow seven who dramatically quit his party yesterday. The leader publicly appealed for unity while his supporters launched savage attacks on the MPs, branding them “cowards”, “traitors” and “splitters” and demanding they give up their seats. But as the crisis deepened, deputy leader Tom Watson said other MPs were also considering leaving Labour, a party he admitted he sometimes no longer recognises, amid visceral anger over antisemitism, Brexit and Mr Corbyn’s leadership. One MP, Chris Leslie, pointed to the Labour leadership’s resistance to a second referendum. The breakaway MPs headed by prominent backbenchers Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger said that they would form a new “Independent Group” in the Commons and invited those from other parties to join. There were some early signs last night that the group might attract support from disenfranchised Conservatives to the new centre ground, anti-Brexit grouping in the chamber.