The Independents | |
---|---|
Founded | 10 July 2019 |
Dissolved | 12 January 2020 |
Split from | Change UK |
Headquarters | 1 Mill Yard Guildford Street Luton LU1 2NR |
Colours | Magenta |
Slogan | Independent together |
Website | |
https://www.theindependents.org.uk/ | |
The Independents were a group of independent MPs in the UK House of Commons that came together in July 2019. [1] The group, which was not a registered political party, described itself as a "co-operative of independent politicians" who hoped to "encourage a stronger spirit of cross-party working" and "will work collaboratively in the national interest". [2] As a technical group, The Independents did not have any formal policies, only providing administrative support to its members who were bound by its six key values [3] [4] of "country first, collaboration, integrity, respect, leadership and openness". [5]
The group had five founding members, four who were elected as Labour MPs and one as a Conservative. When parliament was dissolved for the 2019 general election, two remained, three having left to join the Liberal Democrats.
The group was formed on 10 July 2019 by five MPs, four of whom were among six MPs who left Change UK on 4 June. [6] The four had been in Change UK since February 2019, having previously been members of the Labour Party (three of them) or the Conservative Party (one). (The others who left Change UK at that time, Chuka Umunna and Sarah Wollaston, joined the Liberal Democrats.) The fifth member of the new group, John Woodcock, had been suspended from Labour in 2018 over charges of sexual harassment and left the party while under investigation. He has offered to have the charges investigated under the new group's procedures. [7]
Following the formation of the group, member Heidi Allen said that it would not offer a policy platform; instead it would provide administrative functions and support to member MPs. She also stated that there was no intention for the group to become a political party. [3]
Luciana Berger and Angela Smith left the group to join the Liberal Democrats in early September 2019, [8] [9] and Allen followed on 7 October 2019. [10]
In the 2019 general election, Woodcock did not stand for reelection and Shuker ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. [11] [12] Former members Berger and Smith ran as Liberal Democrat candidates and were also unsuccessful; Allen did not stand for re-election.
The following MPs were members at the 2019 dissolution: [13]
Name | Constituency | Joined | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Gavin Shuker | Luton South | 10 July 2019 | Previously a member of Change UK; was elected as a Labour MP |
John Woodcock | Barrow and Furness | 10 July 2019 | Was elected as a Labour MP |
The following MPs had previously been members:
Name | Constituency | Joined | Left | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Luciana Berger | Liverpool Wavertree | 10 July 2019 | 5 September 2019 | Previously a member of Change UK; was elected as a Labour MP. Joined the Liberal Democrats. [8] |
Angela Smith | Penistone and Stocksbridge | 10 July 2019 | 7 September 2019 | Previously a member of Change UK; was elected as a Labour MP. Joined the Liberal Democrats. [9] |
Heidi Allen | South Cambridgeshire | 10 July 2019 | 7 October 2019 | Previously a member of Change UK; was elected as a Conservative MP. Joined the Liberal Democrats. [10] |
Luton South and South Bedfordshire is a constituency in Bedfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Rachel Hopkins, a member of the Labour Party.
Angela Christine Smith is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Penistone and Stocksbridge from 2010 to 2019 and MP for Sheffield Hillsborough from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously an MP for Labour, later for Change UK, later still as a member of The Independents, then joined the Liberal Democrats before leaving Parliament in 2019. She rejoined Labour in 2022.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that advocates a strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Israeli Labor Party. LFI says it supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with Israel recognised and secure within its borders, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. As of July 2020, it comprises around one quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party and one third of the Shadow Cabinet.
Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British businessman and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He left Labour in February 2019, when he resigned to form The Independent Group, later Change UK, along with six other MPs. Later in 2019, he left Change UK and, after a short time as an independent MP, joined the Liberal Democrats. In the 2019 general election, he failed to be re-elected, and did not return to the House of Commons.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. The current leader of the party is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. They have 79 members of the House of Lords, four members of the Scottish Parliament, one member in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' rules, the Liberal Democrats grant all members attending the conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader.
Luciana Clare Berger is a former British politician who served as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was a founding member of The Independent Group, later Change UK, before joining the Liberal Democrats. Berger rejoined Labour in 2023.
Gavin Shuker is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from 2010 to 2019. Shuker was a Labour and Co-operative Party MP before defecting to form Change UK. He then left Change UK to become an Independent politician and was defeated at the 2019 election, coming third with 9.3% of the vote.
John Zak Woodcock, Baron Walney is a British politician and life peer who formerly acted as the Conservative government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption. He had previously served as a Labour Co-op and then independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Barrow and Furness from 2010 to 2019. He has sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords since 2021, previously sitting as a non-affiliated peer.
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Heidi Suzanne Allen is a British businesswoman and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire from 2015 to 2019. Initially elected as a Conservative, she resigned from the party in February 2019, joining and later serving as acting leader of Change UK. She resigned from Change UK in June of the same year, and joined the Liberal Democrats in October 2019. She announced on 29 October of that year that she would not stand for re-election at the next general election.
Change UK, founded as The Independent Group (TIG) and later The Independent Group for Change, was a British centrist, pro–European Union political party, which lasted for ten months in 2019. Established in February and formally recognized as a party in May, it was dissolved in December after all its MPs lost their seats at that year's general election. Its principal aim was a second withdrawal referendum on European Union membership, in which it would campaign to remain in the EU. On economic issues it expressed a commitment to the social market economy.
A referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, also referred to as a "second referendum", a "rerun", a "people's vote", or a "confirmatory public vote", was proposed by a number of politicians and pressure groups as a way to break the deadlock during the 2017–19 Parliament surrounding the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal.
Unite to Remain was a campaign and electoral pact during the 2019 United Kingdom general election. It involved three parties that supported remaining in the European Union: the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party of England and Wales, and, in Wales, Plaid Cymru. Its stated goal was to avoid the spoiler effect and maximise the number of MPs elected who would oppose Brexit.
The 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held in August 2020, after Jo Swinson, the previous leader of the Liberal Democrats, lost her seat in the 2019 general election. It was initially set to be held in July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was delayed by six weeks, having been at first postponed until May 2021.
This article lists the election results of Change UK in UK parliamentary elections and in elections to the European Parliament.