The Independents were a group of

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

MPs in the

UK House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

that came together in July 2019. The group, which was not a registered political party, described itself as a "co-operative of independent politicians" who hoped to "encourage a stronger spirit of cross-party working" and "will work collaboratively in the national interest". As a

technical group In politics, a technical group or mixed group is a heterogenous parliamentary group composed of elected officials from political parties of differing ideologies (or independent of any party) who are not numerous enough to form groups on their own. ...

, The Independents did not have any formal policies, only providing administrative support to its members whom were bound by its six key values of "country first, collaboration, integrity, respect, leadership and openness". The group had five founding members, four who were elected as Labour MPs and one as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

. When parliament was dissolved for the 2019 general election, three had left to join the Liberal Democrats and two remained.

History

The group was formed on 10 July 2019 by five MPs, four of whom were among six MPs who left

Change UK The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...

on 4 June. The four had been in Change UK since February 2019, having previously been members of the Labour Party (three of them) or the Conservative Party (one). (The others who left Change UK at that time,

Chuka Umunna Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 20 ...

and

Sarah Wollaston Sarah Wollaston (born 17 February 1962) is a British former Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Totnes from 2010 to 2019. First elected for the Conservative Party, she later served as a Change UK and Liberal ...

, joined the Liberal Democrats.) The fifth member of the new group, John Woodcock, had been suspended from Labour in 2018 over charges of sexual harassment and left the party while under investigation. He has offered to have the charges investigated under the new group's procedures. Following the formation of the group, member

Heidi Allen Heidi Suzanne Allen (' Bancroft; born 18 January 1975) is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire from 2015 to 2019. Initially elected as a Conservative, she resigned from the party in F ...

said that it would not offer a policy platform; instead it would provide administrative functions and support to member MPs. She also stated that there was no intention for the group to become a political party.

Luciana Berger Luciana Clare Berger (; born 13 May 1981) is a British former Member of Parliament who was MP for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. Initially a member of Labour Co-op, in 2019 she left and co-founded The Independent Group, later Change UK ...

and Angela Smith left the group to join the Liberal Democrats in early September 2019, and Allen followed on 7 October 2019. In the 2019 general election, Woodcock did not stand for reelection and Shuker ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. Former members Berger and Smith ran as Liberal Democrat candidates and were also unsuccessful; Allen did not stand for re-election.

Members

The following MPs were members at the 2019 dissolution: The following MPs had previously been members:

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
2019 establishments in the United Kingdom July 2019 events in the United Kingdom Independent politicians in the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) breakaway groups Technical parliamentary groups