Guido will miss Heidi Allen as she stands down at the forthcoming election. The soon-to-be-former MP has had an interesting four years in Parliament, hopping ship from the Tories to lead the Tiggers, then to be an independent, and then to be a representative for the short-lived ‘The Independents’ and finally becoming a Lib Dem this month. During her time as an MP she attempted to become Mayor of Cambridgeshire, alas she was rejected by party members at the first hurdle. She didn’t even make the final round…

Heidi will be best remembered for telling her voters one thing and then doing precisely the opposite. By scarpering off now, pro-second referendum Heidi will never have to subject her real views to electoral scrutiny. A masterclass in avoiding any kind of accountability at all…

Of course she doesn’t deserve threats and abuse on social media, however when she says she is quitting because of “the toll on her privacy” did she really mean the scrutiny her hypocrisy and flip-flopping since the referendum has brought her? We wish her well…

UPDATE: TV Producers are passing on notes to not request interviews from Heidi as “she’d get too upset” in them.

Guido hears from a reliable source, who has previously provided accurate information on similar defections, that the Liberal Democrats are to announce former-Tory, former-Tigger, former-Change UK, former-Independent who promised to respect the referendum and deliver Brexit, Heidi Allen, will be joining their growing ranks at their party conference. Not a big jump for her after campaigning for the Lib Dems in July…

UPDATE: Heidi denies to ITV that she is defecting to the LibDems this weekend and says she is remaining an independent MP, “I think someone is being unveiled at their conference, but it’s not me.”

The second referendum campaign for Tory MPs, Right to Vote, set up by Phillip Lee, no longer contains a single Tory MP among their ranks, following multiple defections, resignations and withdrawals of the whip by the Government. Coincidentally the website and campaign have since folded…

At its height, the group contained 10 Tory MPs in its fold, however, following a record number of MPs changing party, the supposedly Conservative campaign is now led by a Lib Dem and counts four independents, one ‘The Independents’ MP and one ‘The Independent Group for Change’ MP among others. Keeping up?

The only sign the group was ever Tory-affiliated is the two remaining Tory Lords, who will be grateful that Boris said he wouldn’t withdraw the whip from any Lords supporting the Surrender Bill. A good demonstration of the change seen in British politics over the last year.

Heidi Allen met the Rees Moggs – senior and junior – out campaigning in the Brecon and Radnorshire sunshine. She’s campaigning for the LibDems…

Just in case things weren’t confusing enough after the Change UK/Independent Group split, a new grouping called The Independents has now launched, including some – but not all – of the rump of the Independent Group. Rather than being a party they say they are structured as a “co-operative” instead. Hopefully they manage to work together more cooperatively than Change UK did…

At launch they have five MPs – Independent Groupers Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith plus former Labour MP John Woodcock, although there’s no sign of Sarah Wollaston. Looks like they won’t be following Chuka to the Lib Dems just yet…

They are making a big feature of their values, rather than political positions, and their independent complaints procedure which Woodcock has already referred himself to in order to resolve the outstanding Labour complaint which Labour deliberately left hanging over him. Can they succeed where TIG/CUK/RA/FC_N failed…?

UPDATE: Even more confusingly, they’re separate from another pet project launched today by Heidi Allen called “Unite to Remain” which will try to get the unruly mass of pro-Remain parties to work together. Or alternatively, try to maintain any sort of media relevance for Heidi herself…

Heidi Allen tried to water down rumours that she will join the Liberal Democrats last night on Peston, but left the possibility open for herself saying “never say never in this game because there are shifting sands”. Guido’s analysis shows that as a Lib Dem Heidi would hold a decent chance of holding her seat. As for the other TIGs, not so much…