Tag Archives: Independent Group

Independent Group for Change’s financial records were destroyed

Anna Soubry: she was leader of Change UK at the end, while her partner was Treasurer.

Remember Change UK, the company-pretending-to-be-a-political-party that went through multiple name-changes in its short life?

Well, it seems the auditor handling the wind-up has discovered irregularities.

Will anything come of it – prosecutions? Doubtful.

Should prosecutions happen? Hard to tell.

Politicians seem to get away with so much these days, it’s impossible to tell whether they’re innocent of wrongdoing or not.

Staff at the Independent Group for Change, the disbanded party established by centrist MPs in 2019, “inappropriately destroyed” financial records, a report by its auditors has found.

According to the auditors, documents including bank statements and files recording details of donations to the party were destroyed by former members of staff. None of the documents, auditors said, could be “satisfactorily reconstructed”.

The report, contained in accounts filed at Companies House on Friday, said the loss of the documents had limited the scope of the auditor’s review of the party’s finances.

Source: Independent Group for Change’s financial records were destroyed | Politics | The Guardian

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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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Disgraceful: Former Labour defector lies about MP’s critique of Independent Group

Liar: Ian Austin.

Comments by Scottish Labour MP Paul Sweeney about former colleagues who defected to The Independent Group have proved very interesting – in the way another former Labour MP has lied about them.

Glasgow North East MP Paul Sweeney said the MPs who founded and joined The Independent Group took part in a “necessary cleansing” of Labour.

He described Chris Leslie and Chuka Umunna as “self-centred careerists”.

Mr Leslie was “aloof and arrogant”, he said, adding: “The venom and vitriol with which he addressed our front bench was a disgrace.”

And he applied these criticisms to other Independent Group members who used to be Labour MPs, including Mr Umunna, Mike Gapes and Angela Smith.

But he said Luciana Berger, who also quit Labour to join the Independent Group, had faced “unacceptable bullying”.

And how does Ian Austin, who also quit Labour but didn’t join The Independent Group, present this story?

Like this:

Austin is a liar. Mr Sweeney never said a word about racism and extremism.

In fact, he spoke kindly about Ms Berger, even though none of the bullying she suffered was by Labour Party members.

Austin’s words have only served to prove Mr Sweeney’s point: Labour is cleaner without the Independent Group defectors – and much cleaner without Austin himself.

Source: EXCLUSIVE: Paul Sweeney says defectors were part of a ‘necessary cleansing’ | Morning Star


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Watson challenged to make a bid for the Labour leadership – but will he take the bait?

Wrong-footed: Tom Watson has been challenged to support his words about Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party with deeds.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson may have bitten off more than he can chew.

In an interview with Andrew Marr on February 24, Mr Watson said he wanted to create a group of “social democrats” within the Labour Party to challenge the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, particularly over anti-Semitism.

This Site has already commented on the anti-Semitism issue, pointing out that Mr Watson’s words cannot be taken at face value after he accepted money from the Israeli government, which is doing all it can to prevent Jeremy Corbyn becoming the UK prime minister – via Labour Friends of Israel.

Others said that Mr Watson needs to keep up with events – a group of Labour MPs has already been created to challenge Mr Corbyn over issues including anti-Semitism. It calls itself The Independent Group and is rapidly losing support in the opinion polls after it was revealed that it has no positive policies; we know what it opposes, but not what it supports.

Now, according to Skwawkbox, Labour MPs have demanded that Mr Watson should just put his money where his mouth is and launch a full-on challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party – or stop rocking the boat once and for all. Corbyn-supporting MPs have even offered him their nominations, to ensure he gets on the ballot paper (in an ironic gesture towards those Corbyn-opposing MPs who gave the current Labour leader their nomination in the name of variety).

Mr Watson is backed into a corner. If he agrees to make a formal challenge, he’ll lose; Mr Corbyn is hugely popular among the party in general. But if he refuses, he’ll never be able to speak up against Mr Corbyn and expect a decent hearing; he’ll have had his chance.

What do you think he’ll do?


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There may be another motive behind the resignations of all these Labour Friends of Israel

Collaborators: Joan Ryan MP was recorded meeting then-Israeli embassy officer Shai Masot. He offered her £1 million to procure support for Israel from Labour MPs. Was this tactic successful?

Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, and Chuka Umunna, of the new Independent Group in Parliament, all split from the Labour Party claiming dissatisfaction with its handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.

They have all also been members of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), as is Pat McFadden, who is said to be expected to join the group in the near future.

And long-standing LFI supporter Tom Watson was quick to issue an ultimatum to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, demanding a stronger response to allegations of anti-Semitism – or more Labour MPs will leave.

LFI works within the Labour Party to promote the state of Israel; fighting anti-Semitism is not one of its express intentions. It is the policies and philosophy of the Israeli government – whatever they may be – that LFI exists to support.

Jeremy Corbyn is a known critic of the current government of Israel – and his views have wide support at a time when there is a wealth of evidence showing that government persecuting the people of Palestine, stealing their land, shooting and bombing their children, and starving them of services and supplies.

We have documentary evidence of LFI chair (and now Independent Group member) Joan Ryan being offered £1 million by then-Israeli embassy officer Shai Masot; the money was to be used to send Labour MPs on trips to Israel, to enjoy that government’s hospitality. At the same time it was revealed that Ms Ryan smeared a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign as an anti-Semite; video evidence conclusively proved that she was lying.

The Independent Group organises itself as a limited company, which means there is no legal way to compel its members to reveal who is funding them.

When I wrote an article asking whether Mr Masot’s claim to have people working for him – in LFI, the Jewish Labour Movement and other Labour-related organisations – would be investigated, I was smeared as an anti-Semite, suspended as a Labour Party member, and eventually expelled. To the best of my knowledge, no such investigation has taken place by the time of writing, two years after I asked the question.

The proportion of anti-Semitism known to have happened in the Labour Party since Mr Corbyn became leader is calculated to have involved less than 0.1 per cent of party members. Considering the behaviour of Angela Smith on television immediately after the formation of The Independent Group, it is likely that the amount of racism in general within Labour has fallen because of these MPs’ departure.

Put it all together and it is worth asking the question:

Is it really anti-Semitism that these MPs are fighting – or opposition to an oppressive, apartheid foreign government?


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Joan Ryan joins ‘Independent Group’ with a huge lie. Par for the course with this mob?

Joan Ryan: Now she has gone, the Parliamentary Labour Party will be a much more honest place.

The (now-former) chair of Labour Friends of Israel has quit the party to join the new ‘Independent Group’ of MPs, with a lie – which is typical of her behaviour.

Joan Ryan had already lost a vote of “no confidence” in her Enfield North Constituency Labour Party after she was caught in a lie that a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign was anti-Semitic.

She had faked an accusation of anti-Semitism against a Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporter called Jean Fitzpatrick. Speaking to an undercover reporter who she thought was a pro-Israel activist, she claimed the PSC activist had said Labour Friends of Israel was a route to getting a job at a bank in the City.

“You heard her say … ‘join you lot and you get into Oxford’ or ‘you get into working in the bank,’” Ms Ryan lied in the resulting documentary, The Lobby. The film shows that Jean Fitzpatrick had said no such thing, but Ms Ryan reported the campaigner to the party’s disciplinary system.

Ms Fitzpatrick, 71, provided a statement to local members on what really happened, attached as an appendix to the motion. She stated that “the strain of the whole case took its toll on me psychologically and emotionally… It would be true to say that it is only in the last year I have begun to recover my health and equilibrium”.

Ms Ryan has been one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most bitter opponents since he was elected leader of the Labour Party, and the motion cited this long-running campaign as its basis, stating that she had written and contributed to many articles in a “press unjustly hostile to Jeremy Corbyn. By doing so our MP has smeared his character.” A constant theme had been baseless allegations of anti-Semitism against the party under Mr Corbyn.

And Enfield North constituency party members were angry that Ms Ryan’s 2017 general election campaign was “all but abandoning Labour and sought to publicize herself as an independent in all but name.”

At the time, Ms Ryan sent out letters claiming that “many” local people had told her “they have more confidence in Theresa May as prime minister than they would have in Jeremy Corbyn.” Despite “your misgivings about the Labour leadership,” she wrote, “I hope that you will consider voting for me as your local MP.”

She lost the the confidence vote despite attempts to bully members by her supporters, who shouted that those who didn’t vote for her were anti-Semites.

You can see that Ms Ryan has a track record of dishonesty.

She left Labour in the manner that characterised her membership of the party – with a lie.

In her resignation letter, she stated: “The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has become infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism. This problem simply did not exist in the party before his election as leader. No previous Labour leader would have allowed this huge shame to befall the party.”

Oh really? Then why was such a fuss made about anti-Semitism after Ed Miliband recognised Palestine’s statehood, to quote examples featuring the immediately-previous Labour leader?

“Cremant Communarde”, on Twitter, wrote a thread about this, going into the history of claims against Labour – starting before Mr Corbyn became leader, that is worth quoting here:

If anti-Semitism wasn’t an issue under Ed Miliband, what were all these people – and you’ll notice they’re the usual suspects – making such a fuss about?

The fact is that anti-Semitism in Labour has reduced under Mr Corbyn’s leadership – but that doesn’t suit Ms Ryan’s narrative so she has denied it with a tissue of falsehoods.

With that record of dishonesty, the rest of Ms Ryan’s claims about anti-Semitic sentiment in the Labour Party aren’t worth a fig. You can read them here if you can stomach the lies.

If you haven’t got the gist yet, let me make it clear: Joan Ryan is a liar. She has made one dishonest claim after another in an increasingly desperate series of attempts to discredit Mr Corbyn.

Now she has joined the “Independent Group” of former Labour MPs who have split from the party, fully half of that organisation have lost votes of “no confidence” in their constituencies.

I have already written about the way that organisation is based on lies and broken promises – so she should be very much at home there.

As is the case with so many of the others, the Labour Party is better for Joan Ryan’s departure.


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Deplorable behaviour over claim that ‘Independent Group’ is funded by Israel

.Margaret Hodge: Why was she allowed to link a reference to Israel with anti-Semitism when IHRA guidelines make it clear that this is not permissible?

Shocking behaviour from elected MPs here – in several different ways.

Firstly, Labour MP Ruth George has been forced to apologise after claiming that the new “Independent Group” – of seven Parliamentarians who have split from the Labour Party – may be funded by Israel.

In a Facebook post she wrote: “Support from the State of Israel, which supports both Conservative and Labour ‘Friends of Israel’, of which Luciana [Berger] was chair, is possible and I would not condemn those who suggest it, especially when the group’s financial backers are not being revealed.

“It’s important for democracy to know the financial backers for any political group or policy.”

She subsequently retracted her statement, commenting: “I had no intention of invoking a conspiracy theory.”

Which conspiracy theory is this, then?

There isn’t a conspiracy theory relating to the state of Israel.

There is one relating to Jews – that a shadowy cabal of people belonging to that religion/ethnicity is trying to control international politics/the press/[fill in the blank] – but the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism makes it abundantly clear that this may not be attributed to criticism of Israel that could also be made about any other country: “Criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.”

That is not the case here.

Nevertheless, when Margaret Hodge appeared on BBC Radio 4’s PM, she did not hesitate to equate the reference to Israel with anti-Semitism, and was not challenged on that by the show’s presenter. I wonder why not.

The second issue arising from this is one that I raised in a previous article: That the “Independent Group” has formed itself as a company, meaning that it does not have to divulge the identities of donors.

For all we know, the Israeli government could be funding this organisation – or perhaps other foreign powers may be. Even if neither is true, we cannot trust these MPs to have the interests of UK citizens at heart, above those of their funders.

And the question of foreign interference in UK politics is a big issue at the moment. Think about the questions around Russian involvement in the EU referendum.

The behaviour of both Ms Hodge, in make a false argument, and the “Independent Group”, in hiding the identity of its backers, is deplorable.

There is an easy way to dispel suspicions about all of these issues, of course – and that is for the “Independent Group” to open up its books to the public.

Until that happens, the people of the UK cannot trust Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey. It’s as simple as that.

Where are the Tory splitters?

“Thanks but no thanks”? Anna Soubry was thought to be joining the new Independent Group of MPs. Where is she?

All the talk last weekend was of Labour MPs splitting away from their party to form a new group – along with Conservative MPs and possibly Liberal Democrats.

We know that seven Labour MPs went through with their split – with humiliating consequences for all those involved.

What about the Tories?

Anna Soubry was thought to have been in talks with Chuka Umunna – did she miss the memo saying when it was all going to happen?

Or was the Conservative side of this just another smokescreen; another gesture towards rebellion that just didn’t quite make it into reality?

That seems more likely.

Until some Conservatives join Umunna’s Seven, it seems clear that we should add to the list of their failings a willingness to be deceived by Conservatives.

Tories who offered to join the Independent Group (or Gemini A Ltd, to give it its official title) have managed to speed a schism in the Labour Party. In public relations terms, this is a boost for their own party that remains (for now) intact.

And the ex-Labour independents should have seen this coming.

The Tories have, after all, a record of failure to go through with rebellion. And they have a record of dishonesty.

They are a party of liars led by a liar. Only a fool would expect them to honour a promise.


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‘Independent Group’ MPs face demands for by-elections in their constituencies

Challenge: Luciana Berger speaking at the launch of the Independent Group. Within hours the Labour Party in her Wavertree constituency had challenged her to prove she deserves to continue as MP for the constituency by taking part in a by-election.

February 18 was a big day for the “Maleficent Seven” Labour MPs who quit to form their own “Independent Group” in Parliament – and now they are facing demands for by-elections in their constituencies.

Local Labour members who helped Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey say they were elected into Parliament on a Labour manifesto but the people of those constituencies no longer have representatives who support that manifesto. They say voters are entitled to choose whether they want to keep the MPs they have, or elect someone who means it when they say they support Labour ideals.

All in all, it was hardly an auspicious start for the group, whose members intended to use their split from Labour to highlight alleged faults in the party they were leaving.

We very soon had ample evidence that the schism was hardly prompted by recent events – the group’s website was registered in 2015… in a tax haven abroad.

The headquarters of this Brexit-opposing organisation is above a Wetherspoons pub – an organisation that supports Brexit – called, appropriately, The Unicorn.

And it turns out that this political organisation is nothing of the sort – it is in fact a company called Gemini A Ltd. This allows it to take advantage of a legal loophole that means Gemini A Ltd does not have to declare the identity of its financial backers. We don’t know who is funding these MPs.

Within hours of the new group being announced, Ms Smith had plunged it into a racism row with ill-judged remarks on the BBC’s Politics Live.

And now all seven are facing challenges to justify their claims on their Parliamentary seats.

See for yourself:

(For those who have trouble reading images, the tweet from Wavertree CLP says: “We are extremely disappointed that Luciana Berger has made the decision to resign from the Labour Party. 35,000 people in Wavertree voted for the Labour Manifesto in 2017, yet they are no longer represented by a Labour MP. We call on Luciana Berger to immediately resign the seat, to give the people of Wavertree the opportunity to decide who represents them in Parliament.”)

It seems this new organisation is built on lies and broken promises. That is a poor platform from which to demand the trust of the people.


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‘Institutionally racist’: Angela Smith should be congratulated for taking racism out of Labour – by quitting

Image: Mohammed Afridi on Twitter.

Already the cracks are starting to show.

I wonder how Luciana Berger, who has made such a row over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, feels about Angela Smith referring to people “of a funny… tint” on the BBC’s Politics Live:

Or is Ms Berger fine with it? She shouldn’t be – besides anti-Semitism, one of the main reasons for the “Independent Group” being formed was racism in general.

lot of people aren’t – and made the obvious connection:

Here‘s Asa Winstanley of The Electronic Intifada: “Right-wing former Labour MP and “Labour Friend of Israel” proves just how concerned she really is about anti-racism by talking about people who are “a funny tint”.”

Barry O’Leary tweeted: “ Thank you so happy you left especially after today’s proof you have problems with race. “Black or a Funny Tinge”.”

Some recalled Independent Group poster boy Chuka Umunna’s claim that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour was “institutionally racist” and asked the obvious question. Here‘s James: “Is “institutionally racist”?”

Louie summed it all up – and provided part of this article’s headline: “A big thank you to Angela Smith for helping to kick racism out of the Labour party by resigning this morning.”

But the last word should go to Eoin Clarke’s Tory Fibs Twitter account:

It seems clear that Labour has lost racist deadweight and stands to acquire at least seven MPs of much higher quality. Let’s look forward to that.

Postscript: Skwawkbox has put up its own piece about this. I love the headline that proclaims: “No complaints procedure in place”.

Ms Smith has tweeted a statement on the matter, as follows:

I played it to Mrs Mike, who responded: “Now she knows how destroying it is. Would she have treated Corbyn the way she has if she had known what it’s like to be on the receiving end?”

Personally I have no sympathy. Certainly at least one of her colleagues has been happy to attack other Labour Party members for behaviour that no reasonable person would consider to be unacceptable. Ms Smith thought she was untouchable because of her privileged position. She was wrong. She’s not protected by the Labour Party complaints system any more. And that is no bad thing at all.


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