'This split will achieve nothing but to help the Tories stay in power': Hartlepool MP says Labour will remain united as seven MPs leave party

Hartlepool MP Mike Hill has spoken out after seven MPs resigned from the Labour party to become independent members.
Hartlepool MP Mike Hill.Hartlepool MP Mike Hill.
Hartlepool MP Mike Hill.

Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey are among the MPs from the party's centrist wing who have been the loudest critics of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, his stance on Brexit and his handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.

They issued an appeal to MPs from both Labour and other parties to "leave the old tribal politics behind" and join their new grouping.

Easington MP Grahame Morris.Easington MP Grahame Morris.
Easington MP Grahame Morris.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

None of the current political parties in Westminster "are fit to provide the leadership and direction needed by our country", they said.

Mr Hill said: "No leader of any political party in history has been perfect and Jeremy Corbyn is no different. However, he was elected in two landslide votes by the membership of the largest political party in Europe. That membership is still a broad church in Hartlepool.

"Every day my post-bag is full of a variety of views; every branch and general committee meeting I attend is a fair and equal debate; and every member I speak to has a different point of view on current affairs. The same is true of the people of Hartlepool as a whole. We will never all agree but the true strength is in arguing your case, not running from debate.

"It goes without saying that more needs to be done to tackle antisemitic behaviour and the Labour Party should have acted more quickly to deal with the issue. However, it is not a crisis, nor is it institutionalised within the Labour Party. It is sick, wrong and cruel behaviour coming from a very small minority of members.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"This split will achieve nothing but to help the Tories stay in power. These seven MPs have consigned themselves to be a footnote in history. We will remain united and firm in the belief that the best hope to end poverty and fight for social justice is a Labour Government. It is what Hartlepool needs and it is what the country needs.”

Easington MP Grahame Morris, who has represented his constituency since May 2010 and has held posts as Opposition Whip and Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention, said: "Whatever tradition of the Labour Party you belong to, whether you are a socialist or a centrist, there is one thing that has always united our movement, and only one objective that should matter to us all.

"That is stopping the Tories' decades-long assault on working people in our country.

"That shared unity and objective matters now more than ever, as this rotten Tory government continues starving our NHS of resources, schools and police of funds, deprives Waspi Women of their state pensions, plunders the Mineworkers' Pension Fund and persist with the senselessness of austerity and the cruelty of Universal Credit, and most of all, risks taking us into a dangerous Tory Brexit that will destroy jobs and investment in our country.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“These are the issues Labour MPs should be entirely focused on, and I therefore regret that some of our MPs are instead engaging in the distracting and divisive exercise we are seeing today.

"Labour should not and will not be distracted or divided, and therefore my question to the defectors is do they intend to put up candidates in Labour-Tory marginals, and split the Labour vote?

"Will they stand in Hastings, and keep Amber Rudd – the overseer of the Windrush Scandal – in office?

"Will they stand in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and keep Boris Johnson – the arch-proponent of a hard Brexit – in office?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Will they stand in Chingford and Woodford Green, and keep Iain Duncan Smith – the architect of Universal Credit – in office?

"If they do, we all know that the only effect of their actions will be to keep the Tories in power and make a Tory Brexit more likely, not less."