After years of pushing to cancel the result of the 2016 referendum, it turns out there is a line some Remainers don’t want to be seen to cross – and the Lib Dems have crossed that line.
Yesterday, Anna Soubry’s sent an email attacking the Lib Dems’ new extremist position, and over the course of today a number of fellow second referendum-supporting MPs have also come out to attack Swinson, including the ‘Independent Group for Change’s Chris Leslie and Greens’ Caroline Lucas who launched a blistering attack of the Lib Dems’ new policy, saying:
Brexit referendum didn’t deliver the outcome many of us hoped for
But you can’t pretend the result didn’t happen. LibDems are doing just that
You can’t turn back the clock.
Nor ignore the 17m who voted LeaveThis doesn’t strengthen our democracy. It further imperils it https://t.co/5C5XfMnjqm
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) September 16, 2019
The revolution eats its own…
UPDATE: Anna Soubry’s attack is particularly audacious, given that she herself called for revoking Article 50 during the EU elections.
The splitting of the ChUKs and the TIGs is not without pain whatever they spin to their media friends. A row is developing about “who owns the data?”
Legally The Independent Group (TIG) Limited controls the data. Gavin Shuker resigned as a director on 21 May, 2019. The company is registered as the data controller with the ICO. So far so clear…
Chris Leslie’s wife, Nicola Murphy, was appointed a director in his place, along with Anna Soubry’s other half, Neil Davidson. So the Leslie – Soubry axis of ChUK would appear to be in control of the political data of hundreds of thousands of people and, more importantly, the ability to tap them up for financing. Not quite.
Shuker quite properly argues the data was collected in the first instance on behalf of The Independent Group. Which is now back in business with the defecting MPs. Too bad say the ChUKs, we’re in control now…
Except the controlling shareholder is still one Gavin Shuker, with the legal power to hire and fire the directors. So the TIGs actually control the ChUK’s company legally and the ICO will probably side with Shuker if it goes to court. The ICO are unlikely to look kindly on two organisations sharing the same data…
The obituaries are being written, perhaps prematurely, for the Tiggers before they have even fought their first election. Guido’s hears that ChUK’s infighting is getting worse as their polling flat-lines. Chris Leslie and his wife Nicola Murphy are copping a lot of the flak. As you would expect from a party opposed to democracy, she was appointed as chief executive of the party without any pretence of a vote and he demanded she got a generous salary as well. This immediately annoyed other staff and activists hoping for jobs – in the main ex-councillors and even some council leaders knocking around looking for work, who joined thinking they would get taken on. A lot of second-raters have been disappointed…
Leslie and Umunna’s relationship has become strained. Chuka feels Chris abandoned him and threw his lot in with Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen. Soubry’s other half is the party treasurer, Neil Davidson. Leslie did a deal with them to control the party machinery. Chuka, Luciana and their small gang of ex-Progress kids who helped with the launch have been completely outmanoeuvred according to an inside source. In comparison to the launch of the Brexit Party it has been a flop and even made centrist Remainers appreciate the LibDem’s merits.
One observer with Labour sympathies speculates: “I think part of problem is Luciana being on maternity leave. She was a big asset because her interventions reminded people of anti-Semitism and the dire state of the Labour Party. Which was powerful and emotional. Without her it’s just the uninspiring centrist managerial politics of Chris Leslie and Heidi Allen.” Quite.
Guido is going to generously assume that Chris Leslie has genuinely confused which party that bell-end Carl Benjamin is standing for, despite plenty of responses in his feed point out that he’s UKIP. At the time of going to pixel it has been up well over 12 hours uncorrected or deleted. Alternatively it could be he’s deliberately smearing the Brexit Party…
He’s not the only one confusing party names. Rachel Johnson who is standing in the South West got her own party’s name wrong. On BBC Radio 5 Live this morning Emma Barnett asked her “What’s the actual name of the party right now, because I don’t even know.” Rachel Johnson replied “The party is called Change UK. It was called The Independent Group.” In fact it is officially called “Change UK – The Independent Group”
“Rather than exchanging snide comments…”
TIG’s Chris Leslie did not hold back in his criticism of the Labour Party on Question Time last night. Andy McDonald didn’t like him bringing up Shami Chakrabarti’s curiously timed peerage…
