I find it difficult to fathom why three Conservative MPs would wish to join the Labour Independent grouping in the Commons. They argue that the Conservative party has shifted away from them under Mrs May over the last year and a half. There is no evidence to support this. The party is rightly moving away from the austerity of the Cameron/Osborne years. It is highlighting the need to govern for the whole nation, and to take care of those places and people that need more support. It has championed the higher living wage, building on Labour’s introduction of the Minimum wage. It has taken care to progress policies of toleration and support for minorities, to give more weight and money to mental health issues and has now announced major new funding for the NHS. These are all things I as a supporter of the ERG also support.
The accusation that the European Research Group is a party within a party is just not true. As the name implies, it is primarily a research group that provides information on EU matters. There is now also a wider group of MPs including me who meet to discuss progress with implementing the referendum decision of UK voters. We gave the government plenty of support for the Withdrawal Act during its long passage, and discussed with each other how best we could help Mrs May deliver it. More recently many of us decided we could not support the Withdrawal Agreement, so we have offered a couple of positive alternatives. This has also entailed cross party working with Nicky Morgan and Damian Green to seek to replace the Irish backstop and to find a way to deliver a free trade agreement. There are no whips and no requirement to act as a cohesive group or party, nor even a firm membership. MPs come to the meetings as they wish and see fit. We did all see eye to eye on the Withdrawal Agreement, which is the one occasion when a lot of ERG members felt the need to vote against the government. On the Remain side in contrast there has been a small group of very active Conservative MPs who have frequently voted against the government and have also had regular meetings to work together to stop the Withdrawal Act and now to delay Brexit or to hold a second referendum. They also often work with Labour to further their aims.
I would like to think those Conservative MPs thinking of quitting to join the three and the Labour Independents think again. They with me fought the last election on a Manifesto which said we would act to leave the EU, and leave the Customs Union and single market. We also opposed the Lib Dem plan for a second referendum, and stated that No deal is better than a bad deal. This platform was attractive to a large number of voters and secured our election. We need to keep our promises. Labour also campaigned to leave the EU, and implied they wished to leave the Customs Union because they set out an independent UK trade policy which would be incompatible with staying in. The new Independent grouping seems primarily to be a group of Labour MPs have many disagreements with the leadership of Mr Corbyn and the current style and approach of the Labour establishment.
The Independent group currently say they are not forming a new party and will not be contesting elections. It is quite possible it will evolve into a new party, and many in the media assume it will. When Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless left the Conservative party because it was not Eurosceptic enough, they rightly resigned their seats and fought by elections in their new colours. There is no legal requirement to do so for an MP who changes his or her mind. However, there is something odd about a group who say they want a People’s vote on the EU again, who will not offer the people in their constituency a People’s vote on whether they like the new stance of their MP or not. My advice to Conservatives is to see this new Independent grouping as an internal matter for Labour, not as a new version of the Lib Dems. If you want a party that has consistently stood up for Remain and for a second referendum the natural home to go to is the Lib Dems. They kindly tested the popularity of that policy extensively in the last election, and came a poor third.