Eighth Labour MP quits party to join breakaway Independent Group

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Eighth Labour MP quits party to join breakaway Independent Group

Joan Ryan says party has become ‘infected with scourge of anti-Jewish racism’

Heather Stewart Political editor
Tue 19 Feb 2019 23.04 GMT

Joan Ryan has become the eighth Labour MP to resign and join the breakaway Independent Group, claiming Jeremy Corbyn’s party has become “infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism”.

Ryan, the MP for Enfield North, said she had been a member for four decades – but could no longer remain as a Labour MP.

Echoing Luciana Berger, the Jewish MP for Liverpool Wavertree, Ryan blamed what she claimed was the Labour leadership’s “dereliction of duty” in the face of the “evil” of antisemitism, for her decision to resign.

In a stinging resignation letter, she said: “I cannot remain a member of the Labour party while this requires me to suggest that I believe Jeremy Corbyn – a man who has presided over the culture of anti-Jewish racism and hatred of Israel that now afflicts my former party – is fit to be prime minister of this country. He is not.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/19/joan-ryan-eighth-labour-mp-quits-party-to-join-breakaway-independent-group

[Beakybird]

1. Good. Corbyn is an antisemite, and he's a fool for not supporting a new referendum.

[Denzil_DC]

2. Joan Ryan is/was Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

She was no-confidenced by her local party after, among other things, she was filmed in discussion about seemingly shady funding with Israeli diplomat Shai Masot, who left the UK in disgrace in January 2018:

Link to tweet

Israeli diplomat caught on camera plotting to 'take down' UK MPs

An Israeli embassy official has been caught on camera in an undercover sting plotting to “take down” MPs regarded as hostile, including foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan, an outspoken supporter of a Palestinian state.

In an extraordinary breach of diplomatic protocol, Shai Masot, who describes himself as an officer in the Israel Defence Forces and is serving as a senior political officer at the London embassy, was recorded by an ­undercover reporter from al-Jazeera’s investigative unit speaking about a number of British MPs.

The Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, apologised to Duncan on Friday. An Israeli spokesman said Regev made clear that “the embassy considered the remarks completely ­unacceptable”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/07/israeli-diplomat-shai-masot-caught-on-camera-plotting-to-take-down-uk-mps

Israeli diplomat who plotted against MPs also set up political groups

An Israeli embassy official who plotted to “take down” MPs regarded as hostile has also set up a number of political organisations in the UK that operated as though entirely independent.

Shai Masot was filmed covertly as he boasted about establishing several groups, at least one of which was intended to influence Labour party policy, while appearing to obscure their links to Israel.

The disclosure comes as Labour demanded the government launch an immediate inquiry into “improper interference in our democratic politics”. A former Tory government minister also called for an inquiry into the Israeli embassy’s links with two organisations, Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

Meanwhile, Masot is being sent back to Israel in disgrace, and a civil servant and Conservative official who was also filmed discussing ways to discredit MPs has resigned from her post.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/08/israeli-diplomat-shai-masot-plotted-against-mps-set-up-political-groups-labour

[T_i_B]

3. Three more MP's have joined TIG

Anna Soubry
Heidi Allen
Sarah Wollenstone

The saner Tories are starting to leave their party as well.

[Thyla]

4. Was just about to mention that

I get the feeling this is going to be a bigger deal than it feels right now. Some of the talking heads on Newsnight and such are throwing some potentially large numbers of defectors around with the consensus that now is too early to tell but I'm guessing after March 29 the floodgates may open.

Not overly sure what to make of it all yet.

[Denzil_DC]

5. I could be wrong, but I get the feeling the media are playing this up as more than it is.

There have been wry jibes from some journalists on Twitter that their colleagues will be disappointed because they've now lost some of those "party sources" that were so useful to hang stories about disarray in Labour and the Tories on. The fact that people (including journos) had to hurriedly Google most of the IG's members once they announced to find out who the heck they were is quite telling, as is the fact that some of them were facing deselection by their local parties before the next election.

There's already loose talk of the Independent Group displacing the SNP as the third largest party in Westminster. Some pollsters are already projecting 6-14% for the IG at a general election.

It's not even a political party at this point, and at time of that polling there were only seven of them, none elected as IG members, so this seems nonsensically premature! Their very name makes them a non-starter in Scotland (pro-independence voters aren't known for being centrist, and unionist centrists are unlikely to vote for anything with "independent" in its name)!

Its lead spokesperson, Chuka Umunna, has in the past denied seeing evidence of antisemitism in the Labour Party before deciding that it was institutionally racist, opposed a second referendum before deciding he wanted one, and spent most of yesterday trying to rationalize and condemn, with some charitable attempt at understanding, Angela Smith's bonkers "funny tinge" comment, so their messaging, among all the other first-day mishaps, is less than clear.

Are they an anti-(Labour)antisemitism group? A pro-Remain group? Both? What other policies do they have that their members (including today's influx of three Tories) can agree on and form a coherent platform?

It's a far cry from when the SDP was set up. That at least had most of its ducks in a row and some relatively big hitters on board before it launched.

This seems ill-timed, just at this crucial point when the last thing that's needed is a handy distraction for the media to run away with, shambolic, and having gone public way too early. If they'd launched a year ago, there might have been time for some momentum to build up and the edges to be knocked off their public face before we got to the threshold of Brexit. As it is, I can't see them achieving much of use, and after Brexit, if they're still around, they're likely to just muddy the electoral waters.

[T_i_B]

6. Ian Austin as well now

That makes 12 at the present time.

[Denzil_DC]

7. He's just been quoted on BBC news as saying he has "no plans to join the Independent Group".

If this article's to be believed, there was supposed to be a much bigger splash when it was launched:

The Chaos Of The New Independent Group Meant Only 7 Out Of 30 Potential Labour Rebels Quit

Around 30 Labour MPs held talks about leaving the party and joining the new Independent Group in what would have been a far more damaging assault on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but most decided against amid chaotic disagreements between the plotters over strategy, organisation and personalities, BuzzFeed News can reveal.

Senior Labour figures involved in the breakaway plot confirmed that the original plan, conceived at a series of meetings last year, was for several dozen MPs to quit in one go. Only seven went ahead with the plan on Monday.

The mass departures didn’t happen, they told BuzzFeed News, after a series of behind-the-scenes differences of opinion between rebel MPs, on everything from the overarching strategy of the movement to more specific questions like the need to fight by-elections and whether ex-Labour MPs who left the party amid sexual harassment allegations should be allowed to join them.

...

The fundamental divide between the Labour splitters is over the new party that will emerge, the sources said. Several MPs including Chris Leslie and ringleader Chuka Umunna hope to be at the forefront of a new “centrist” party modelled on Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche.

The Leslie-Umunna faction is being challenged by a rival splinter group led by a number of former advisers to Tony Blair, including his former chief of staff Jonathan Powell and speechwriter Philip Collins, who have been holding meetings with the aim of forming their own party.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/30-mps-labour-independent-group

[T_i_B]

8. There is a real danger here....

....of the "centrist" bit of the political spectrum becoming like the People's Front of Judea scene in Life of Brian. I fully sympathise with people leaving the 2 main parties, but there is still a need for politicians to work together.

[Denzil_DC]

9. I think that hits the nail on the head.

Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2019, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

The splitters come pre-split!

I think this was the danger of identifying as a "group" (let alone a party in the making) so early on. It seems like a tactic that might have worked with the larger numbers originally envisaged (assuming the article I quoted above is right), though the predominance of ex-Labour figures would likely have put off joiners from any other parties, but is in danger of proving a damp squib that could occupy ground that might be better occupied by different initiatives.

But with only an initial 7, then what some in the media have been projecting as a trickle of defectors over the next few weeks (shades of the trickle effect attempted when there were a number of sequential resignations in the early moves to depose Corbyn), with the possibility of much more major moves if no deal does come about, it's having a different effect. I'm glad, at least, that pressure's finally being applied to both May and Corbyn.

It might have been more effective at this stage for the IGers to resign their party whips and dare their parties to expel them, keeping their powder dry. That may be what some who haven't made any moves yet have in mind (given that the whips don't seem to be holding anyway!).

Still, the IG is going to have a place on the next BBC Question Time panel, so that may give some satisfaction to the "Leslie-Umunna faction".

I do think a big hitter with an engaging media manner like Ken Clarke making a move would create a whole new ball game (heaven help me, I'd never have envisaged seeing him as a voice of sanity). Whether he could tolerate the company and egos in the IG is another matter!

[T_i_B]

10. My local councillor has just resigned from Labour as well

Not surprised by this as he is Angela Smith's husband. Up for reelection this year and by all accounts there were attempts to deselect him on account of his being in possession of an offensive wife.

Labour locally does appear to be a real mess.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. +1 for the Not the Nine O'Clock News Constable Savage ref!!!