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Agencies

Seven MPs from Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Monday announced they were breaking away and forming an independent group in protest at the party’s support for Brexit.
“This has been a very difficult, painful but necessary decision,” one of the MPs, Luciana Berger, said at a hastily arranged press conference in London.

Other MPs expected to quit the party included Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Mike Gapes.
“If you want an alternative please help us build it,” Umunna said. “Politics is broken. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Gapes said: “I am furious that the Labour leadership is complicit in facilitating Brexit.”
Leslie said he was leaving because of “Labour’s betrayal on Europe”.
Despite the small number, it is the biggest split in the party since four senior Labour figures quit in the 1980s to form the Social Democratic party.
The MPs say they have been unhappy with Labour’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn.
There has been speculation that several centrist Conservative politicians are also considering their future in the party over Theresa May’s EU policy.

MPs from both parties have been facing the threat of possible deselections where their views clash with local constituency members either over Brexit or their loyalty to the leadership.
Corbyn said he was “disappointed” by the MPs’ decision.
“Now more than ever is the time to bring people together to build a better future for us all,” he said.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock told BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour on Sunday: “The talk has been going on so long that I say with great regret that, yes, there probably will be some kind of splintering. It just seems to have been in the rumour mill so long that it’s unlikely that wouldn’t be the outcome.”


Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell warned on Sunday that MPs quitting could cause a decade of Tory rule, as it risked splitting the Labour vote in their constituencies.
“It would be like the 1980s. In my constituency in Hayes and Harlington we had a Labour MP join the SDP and we lost the seat to the Conservatives,” he told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show. “And it basically installed Mrs Thatcher in power for that decade. I don’t think any of the people who have even been mentioned around this split would want that.”

Some in Labour appear to be goading the grouping to split. Last week, Momentum released a spoof Valentine’s Day video aimed at Umunna, set to the song Please Don’t Go.
Reacting to rumours of a split on Sunday night, Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union, told the BBC: “If you are going to leave, for God’s sake get on with it and stop pestering us through the media and through the TV,” he told the BBC.


Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the TSSA transport union, which backs a second EU referendum, said: “I’d urge anyone in our party thinking of bolting not to do so. Brexit, or any other issue, isn’t an excuse for breaking away. Labour is the only show in town for creating a fairer Britain. Our voters need our MPs to be made of sterner stuff.”
Berger insisted the party had become “institutionally anti-Semitic”.
“I have become embarrassed and ashamed to represent the Labour Party,” she said. “I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation.”
Local Lib Dem parties in some constituencies have been told to be receptive if any MP were to quit Labour or the Conservatives, even if they do so to sit in Westminster as an independent.
The Guardian, Agence France-Presse


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Britain

Seven MPs quit UK’s Labour over Brexit, in party’s biggest split for decades

(190214) -- LONDON, Feb. 14, 2019 (Xinhua) -- British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) attends the Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in London, Britain, Feb. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor) HOC MANDATORY CREDIT: UK PARLIAMENT/JESSICA TAYLOR

Britain's Labour Party MP Chuka Umunna arrives at a news conference in London, Britain, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

Britain's Labour Party MP Luciana Berger arrives at a news conference in London, Britain, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

Former Labour MPs: Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker and Chuka Umunna pose for a photograph following a press conference in London on February 18, 2019. Photo: AFP

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China’s top banker names US Fed policy and Brexit as biggest risks to global growth

The governor of China’s central bank Yi Gang named Brexit and the US Federal Reserve’s policy as the two biggest risks to global growth in the year ahead. Photo: Xinhua

Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, speaks during an Economic Club of Washington D.C., on Jan. 10, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Al Drago

Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), speaks at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. Yi said the nation is seeking to solve trade tensions with the U.S. constructively and will continue to open up its services industry, especially the finance sector. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

EU’s Donald Tusk says there’s a ‘special place in Hell’ for UK Brexiteers who had no plan. They call him spiteful, disgraceful, and a ‘devilish Euro maniac’

EU Council President Donald Tusk gives a statement after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

epa07329372 Britain's Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom leaves Downing Street after political cabinet in London, Britain 29 January 2019. The House of Commons is set to vote on amendments to British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan in parliament on 29 January. EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

EU Council President Donald Tusk and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar leave the room after a statement at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

News

World

Europe

Lawmakers say they are unhappy with the party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn and his support for Britain leaving the EU


Lawmakers say they are unhappy with the party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn and his support for Britain leaving the EU.


Brexit

Seven MPs quit UK’s Labour over Brexit, in party’s biggest split for decades

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Lawmakers say they are unhappy with the party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn and his support for Britain leaving the EU

Lawmakers say they are unhappy with the party’s direction under Jeremy Corbyn and his support for Britain leaving the EU