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Tuesday, 21 January 2025 – 09:25

Independent Group for Change is disbanded

The Independent Group for Change is being disbanded, according to the party’s leader Anna Soubry.

The party failed to make an impact in the European elections earlier this year and none of the original members of the party remains as an MP following the general election.

The party claimed that it wanted to fix ‘Broken politics’, but the party itself has had a troubled history. Founded in March 2018, the party at one point consisted of 11 MPs including Labour and Conservative MPs unhappy with the direction of their parties, including having concerns over Brexit and the tackling of anti-Semitism.

However, the party has had to change its name three times, from the Independent Group to Change UK to the Independent Group for Change, and had its preferred logo rejected by the Electoral Commission. In June, six of the eleven MPs of the party left to sit in the House of Commons as independents, and some members stood as Liberal Democrats candidates in the recent general election.

In a letter to the party’s members, Anna Soubry wrote;

“Whilst there is clearly a need for massive change in British politics, now that we no longer have voices within Parliament, a longer term realignment will  have to take place in a different way. 

Honesty and realism are at the core of our values, and we therefore must recognise that the political uncertainty of recent months has now given way to a settled pattern in Parliament for the next five years. So this is the right time for us to take stock.”

The party was described as centrist and pro-European, with it supporting a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.

 

Photo Credit: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)