Chuka Umunna has said he hopes a new party will be created by the end of the year, after he and six other MPs quit Labour citing anger at the party’s Brexit policy and the issue of antisemitism.
Umunna hinted that he expected more MPs, including some from the Conservative party, to depart in the coming days and weeks.
“I would like to see us move as quickly as possible and certainly by the end of the year, but that’s my personal view,” he told ITV. “There needs to be an alternative, so that’s perfectly possible. But I don’t get to determine this.”
Umunna – who quit the party alongside Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey – said moderate Conservatives had “become demoralised by the Ukip-isation of their party and their position on Europe”.
At least two Tory MPs are believed to be seriously considering their position in the party and more could follow them, with names including Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen and Nick Boles.
Other Labour MPs on Monday night suggested their response would be governed by the reaction of the party leadership. “Frank Field left Labour over bullying six months ago,” MP Neil Coyle said.
“That was avoidable but his work and name were allowed to be smeared and the swaggering ‘brocialism’ has continued and festered. That failure had consequences that contributed to more members and MPs leaving Labour. A continued failure to tackle problems will cause more departures.”
Ian Austin, another Labour MP, also said overnight he was disappointed with the response from the leadership. “If this is the best the leadership can do then I think this will result in more people leaving,” he said. “I think today’s events will mean lots of people will be reflecting.”
Umunna told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he understood it was a big decision for other colleagues to make but said he and the other six MPs were putting “everything on line” by taking the plunge.
“I believe people will want to see more politicians do that,” he said. “There are many other people who have misgivings about their parties. If we’re to fix the broken politics, you can’t do that within the existing parties who can’t be the change because they’ve become the problem in my view.”
Umunna said the new party would be built by those who decided to join the group as independents and those outside Westminster.
“You can’t have this cooked up by seven people in Westminster,” he said. “If we just do things the same old way and announce things at podiums and tell people how it’s going to be then we are just behaving like the establishment and we want to be different.”
On Monday it was also revealed that the former deputy leader of Liverpool council, Derek Hatton, a member of the Trotskyist group Militant, had been readmitted to the party.
Hatton, speaking on the Today programme, called the MPs who quit “pathetic” and said he was pleased to be back in the party after his expulsion three decades ago.
“For 34 years I’ve stayed absolutely solid with the Labour party. Never joined any other party, never actually voted for another party. Never campaigned for another party,” he told the BBC. “And, believe you me, during the times of the Blair era, the Iraq war, the ending of clause four, etc, it wasn’t easy, and it was tempting to go.
“That’s why when you look at the seven who now have left you think, well, how pathetic is it, how really strong are you within the Labour movement to want to run away when there is something that you disagree with?”
Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, called Monday a sad day for Labour MPs and party members.
Long-Bailey said Brexit as well as mounting domestic problems such as homelessness, crime and universal credit meant the party should “provide a united front” despite some differences.
Asked if the party would experience more days like Monday, she said: “I truly hope we don’t. Whatever people’s concerns are about our policies or decisions our frontbench colleagues have made on things, we need to have those discussions within our parliamentary party.”
