Tag Archives: Change UK

All change at Change UK as opportunists quit in search of someone who’ll vote for them

And then there was one: Anna Soubry, centre, is the new leader of Change UK, while former leader Heidi Allen (left) and Sarah Wollaston (right) have quit the party like rats leaving the proverbial sinking ship.

Six of Change UK’s MPs have quit the party after it failed to make an impression at the European Parliamentary elections.

It speaks volumes about the party that its principal defectors were its former leader, Heidi Allen, and spokesman Chuka Umunna.

Both have been talking up the prospect of an alliance with the Liberal Democrats – who, conversely, fared exceptionally well at the elections.

While they haven’t actually joined the Lib Dems yet, it seems a safe bet that they will.

Also out of CHUK are Gavin Shuker, Luciana Berger, Angela Smith and Sarah Wollaston.

You can smell the desperation, can’t you?

These people left their respective parties in the belief that their personal brands were more popular than those of the parties they were leaving.

They were wrong – even the three who left the Conservatives.

Now, it seems to This Writer, the six quitters – double-quitters, if you think about it – are looking for another way to keep themselves in Parliament.

With the Liberal Democrats apparently on the rise again thanks to their stance as the “Party of Remain”, it seems they look like good prospects.

I’d say “watch this space”, but in the case of Change UK it is only likely to grow more empty.

Source: Change UK loses six of its 11 MPs after dire EU elections result | Politics | The Guardian

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‘Change UK’ spends fortune on social media ads – but is blocked for violating Twitter rules

This is very amusing from Skwawkbox, and is more proof of the ineptness of the Change UK team. The message is clear: don’t vote for people like this.

Twitter is taking action against CUK over its paid advertising on the platform. In just the past week, two out of its three paid ads have been removed by Twitter for violating its policies.

Twitter has not stated which of these were the issue with the CUK ads.

Twitter is not the only – or apparently even the major – target for CUK’s paid advertising. The outfit is spending a huge amount on Facebook – well over £50,000 just in the last week.

Source: ‘Change UK’ spends fortune on Facebook ads – but blocked for violating Twitter rules | The SKWAWKBOX

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Don’t have a strop, Change UK, because Labour will contest an election IN THE NORMAL WAY

Gavin Shuker: Labour wants to run a normal election campaign so he’s going to sulk.

How ridiculous of the most ridiculous political organisation to turn up (until the Brexit Party arrived).

Apparently Change UK, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats have been discussing the possibility of uniting behind an independent candidate in the upcoming Peterborough Parliamentary by-election.

This candidate would have supported remaining in the European Union and would have advocated for a “People’s Vote” second referendum on that subject.

There was nothing to stop them from doing this.

But it seems the candidate they chose to support has now withdrawn, after the Labour Party said it would not join this alliance and would campaign to win the constituency on its own terms.

This should come as no surprise because Labour is not a “Remain”-supporting party – or “Leave”-supporting, in fact. Labour respects the result of the referendum but is sceptical about the possibility of negotiating an acceptable decoupling deal with the EU and will support another referendum if a workable deal proves impossible to achieve.

And this is a by-election for a Parliamentary constituency – not a mini-referendum on Brexit – so Labour is well within its rights to want to campaign on local issues.

Change UK’s response was to throw its toys out of the pram. Here’s part of Gavin Shuker’s statement:

“Senior Labour figures, including senior figures campaigning for a people’s vote, made it clear that they would strenuously disrupt the campaign and obstruct an independent candidate, driven by fears that it would harm their party in Peterborough.”

In other words, he was whining about Labour holding a normal election campaign.

One wonders whether this outburst was prompted by the fact that Change UK didn’t manage to register a candidate of its own in time (the Greens and Lib Dems did).

Reaction on the social media has been acid:

Source: Change UK, Greens and Lib Dems blame Labour after parties fail to agree backing for single, pro-Remain candidate in Peterborough by-election | The Independent

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How nice of defecting Tories to tarnish The Independent Group too

Kenneth Clarke: The instant a Brextremist gets installed as Tory leader, he’s off to Change UK.

Labour supporters should be loving the thought that they can just sit back and watch the Tories self-destructing – and taking other parties with them.

What, for example, was going through the mind of Stephen Dorrell when he decided to quit the Conservative benches in favour of Change UK – The Independent Group, saying in the process that they were the natural heirs of historic Conservatism?

He said: “I shall continue to describe myself, as I always have, as a liberal Conservative but I shall do so in future as a supporter of Change UK – The Independent Group, which I believe has become the natural home of those who regard themselves, as I do, as the heirs of Disraeli, Churchill, Macmillan and Heath.”

Another Tory, Neil Carmichael, has also left the party and both he and Mr Dorrell seem keen to represent Change UK in the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

And most damaging of all to the Conservative Party, grandee Kenneth Clarke has signalled that he may leave if Theresa May is replaced as leader of the Conservative Party by a “hard” Brexiter.

But this is also hugely harmful to the founders of the independent group in Westminster – all formerly Labour MPs who claimed that party had lost its way under Jeremy Corbyn.

It shows that Conservatives believe critics such as myself were right to describe the likes of Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and Luciana Berger as Tories in Labour ties.

And it suggests that opinion polls showing the Conservatives – rather than Labour – losing popularity to Change UK are correctly reflecting the mood of the public that these so-called independents are nothing other than more neoliberals in a different disguise.

Clearly the mask isn’t very convincing as we’ve all seen through it.

Source: Tories hit by new defections and slump in opinion polls as party divide widens | Politics | The Guardian

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Pro-Labour poll boost leads to Tory panic – and propaganda backlash?

Tom Watson: The Tories’ secret weapon?

Labour’s poll lead over the Conservatives is widening – just as This Writer said it would – and it seems part of the phenomenon is due to the splitter group Change UK (as it now wishes to be known) taking traditional Tory votes.

A version of the poll that allows voters to support the new party, Change UK, provides a hint as to the reason for the Conservatives’ fall:

A Twitter user delighting in the handle “You’re terrible, Luriel”, stated: “It *is* funny that the Tinge have done more damage to the Tories than Labour though, isn’t it? Big shoutout to , , , et al. Who knew that the greatest service you could do the Labour Party was not be in it?”

I think it tells us something we knew all along – that TINGe/Change UK/CHUK or whatever you want to call it is just another brand of Toryism. It has attracted traditional – non-neoliberal – Tories away from the Conservative Party, thereby weakening Theresa May’s increasingly feral pack of animals.

The poll ratings appear to have induced panic in the Tories’ high command, which seems to be splitting over Theresa May’s alleged offer of a general election in the event of further deadlock over her Brexit plan.

According to The Observer, MPs from all sides of the Conservative Party are saying they would block any move by Mrs May to lead them into a general election, fearing a worse wipeout than in 2017 – and who can blame them?

Meanwhile, Amber Rudd is said to have formed a party-within-the-party to stop what’s seen as a disturbing rightward drift, perhaps spearheaded by the European Research Group (ERG) of right-wing MPs; pro-Brexit ministers are threatening to resign if Mrs May agrees a permanent customs union with the EU; and other Conservatives are preparing to support a referendum on any deal eventually passed by Parliament.

In other words, the Conservatives are a mess and the only reasons they are likely to stay in government are selfish. No wonder they are plummeting in the polls.

After all, when even the Mail‘s principal ugly, Dan Hodges, is saying this –

– they know they’re deep in the doo-doo.

But all may not be lost for them!

Their secret weapon – Labour deputy leader Tom Watson – was set to appear on the BBC’s flagship politics discussion programme, The Andrew Marr Show, on Sunday morning. It is entirely possible he’ll find some piece of anti-Labour dribble that he’s been saving for a rainy day, that the pro-Tory Corporation can overhype until somebody believes it.

Watson has already said he would work with the Conservatives in a “government of national unity”, whatever that is, so we know he can’t be trusted to support a Labour government. By rights he should be drummed out of the Labour Party for suggesting the answer could be anything other than a Labour government – but of course he is a senior party representative and a member of Parliament to boot, so he remains impervious to any attempts to put him through the party’s grotesquely biased and one-sided disciplinary procedure.

The trouble is, the clocks have gone forward and most people are likely to oversleep and miss it. I’m writing this at 2.20am, so I know I will!

Who knows what else the Tories will try, if Tom doesn’t turn the tables for them?

We may find out in unintentionally (for the Tories) hilarious ways.

In a nutshell: The Conservatives are unsafe whatever they do – and it’s all their own fault.

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TINGe group to register as formal political party. Does this mean we can find out who funds it?

Party girls: Heidi Allen (left), interim leader of “Change UK”, with fellow members Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston. You can read about their decision to register as a formal political party here.

The INdependent Group of elitist MPs – colloquially known by its critics as TINGe after a racist comment by member Angela Smith – is to register as a political party on the advice of the Electoral Commission and will be known as Change UK.

Small Change UK? Or Short-Change UK? One has to ask.

What I want to know is, does this mean we will finally be able to see who is actually funding this shadowy organisation that has, until now, hidden its finances by registering itself only as a private company?

That information would be worth knowing.

TINGe – sorry, CHINGe – claims it is registering as a party in order to take part in the upcoming European Parliament elections – so it seems clear that MPs like Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen, Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger are nailing their flags to the mast and saying Theresa May’s third attempt to get her withdrawal agreement through the House of Commons today will end in defeat.

If it doesn’t, and the UK leaves the EU without having to participate in the elections, will they go through with registering as a party, or will they go back to hiding behind their shroud of commercial secrecy?

Participation in the EU elections would also provide us with a way to gauge whether the independent MPs and their organisation have gained any real traction among the electorate.

What do you think of this latest development?

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