It's finally happened. After three and a half years seven Labour MPs have decided they can stomach Jeremy Corbyn no longer and have decided to sit as Independents.
Some will see this as a mould breaking moment. I'm not sure I do, but time will tell. It has echoes of 1981 when the so-called Gang of Four formed the SDP. But they were big beasts of the political jungle - people who had been senior cabinet ministers. They were household names. With the greatest of respect to the Gang of Seven, only Chuka Umunna could be described in that way.
I suspect the formation of The Independent Group - who I hereby dub as The Tiggies - is but the first move in a planned reformation of the centre ground of British politics. I can see an alliance being formed with the Liberal Democrats as a precursor to maybe a new pro-European centre ground political party which could envelop some elements of the Tory Party too. But there's a long way to go before that happens.
David Lammy has been sitting in for James O'Brien this morning on LBC and has rather laughably been trying to turn it into a Tory story. It may well be that four or five Tory MPs follow suit and resign the Tory whip at some point soon, but we're not there yet. It is true that any Tories who feel jubilant at today's news and believe that this could herald a split of the left vote and herald Thatcher style landslides in future should be very careful what they wish for.
Given the launch of The Brexit Party and depending how it develops, we could see a lot of votes peeling off from the Tories too. It's perfectly possible to imagine a situation where we have five parties competing for votes soon, each with a double figure poll rating. Both Labour and the Tories have a core vote of around 25%, but that leaves 50% up for grabs.
This presents a challenge to the LibDems too. By rights, given they have a clear pro European stance, they should be cleaning up the votes of the 48% and it remains a little bit of a mystery as to why they can't get above 10% in the opinion polls. Vince Cable, perhaps, has a lot to answer for. There will be many LibDems today who may think the time has come to replace Vince with a younger, more charismatic leader like Jo Swinson or Layla Moran.
Our Monday Night Panel this evening on LBC will be exploring all these issues.
Independent Group member Angela Smith MP will be on Cross Question this Wednesday at 8pm on LBC.
