From Bombshell Emails To An ’80s Throwback: How Labour’s Dramatic Split Unfolded

One of Westminster’s most dramatic days since the Brexit referendum began in silence. One-by-one, seven Labour MPs looked across a table at one another and pressed send on emails destined to make history.

Their bombshell “statement of independence” informed Jeremy Corbyn, the party’s most left-wing leader since the 1980s, they were resigning to sit as The Independent Group (TIG).  

“There were no doubters,” Luciana Berger, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree, told HuffPost UK at the end of a day that is likely to reverberate for months.

Berger added it was the alleged refusal of her former party to deal with anti-Semitism that drove her to leave.

“It would have been much easier for me to put my head in the sand and my fingers in my ears but this is about every organ of the party, from the NEC, the general secretary to Jeremy himself and the shadow cabinet. There doesn’t seem to be any desire to contend with the issue of anti-Semitism, and I couldn’t see that changing,” she said.

Moments later, she, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Ann Coffey and Gavin Shuker filed into the next room, overlooking a choppy River Thames and Westminster Bridge, to explain their joint decision to a crowd of journalists.

Berger said her party had become “institutionally anti-Semitic”, while others cited deep frustration with Corbyn’s Brexit policy as the driver of the ‘gang of seven’ and its shock move. 

“Politics is broken, it doesn’t have to be this way, let’s change it,” Umunna told the press conference.

“If you are sick and tired of politics as usual, guess what? So are we,” added the Streatham MP, whose name has long been associated with whispers of a breakaway.

Whether the new parliamentary caucus triggers an En Marche-style centrist party, which swept Emmanuel Macron to power in France, remains to be seen. But as the news sunk in for the rank and file, statements declaring sadness and heartache quickly descended into briefing and counter-briefing.

Questions immediately began to swirl over how TIG will be funded as a new website and accompanying crowdfunder page crashed due to a rush of interest. Key figures refused to name any large donor. “If you want to build something new, if you feel as politically homeless as us, this is the moment to build it,” said Shuker when pressed. 

While facing instant criticism from Corbyn loyalists, TIG’s first major error was entirely self-inflicted. Smith became embroiled in a racism row barely two hours after the new group was formed when she described BAME voters as having a “funny tinge” in a BBC interview. She later apologised.