New UK party raises its head

Chuka Umunna's amendment to the Tory's Queen's Speech (the minority Tory government's programme over the next two years) is the first tentative step towards a new party in the Westminster Parliament. 50 Labour MPs followed him and rejected Labour's call for abstention on the vote, which was backing a call for the UK to stay in the single market after Brexit. In reality Umunna's act had little to do with this or that aspect of the EU (although he and his followers are deeply committed to rejoining). Umunna, a sophisticated Blairite, stood and then withdrew from the Labour leadership in 2015. But he has retained his public contempt for the Corbyn leadership of the party and is an ideal leader for a new parliamentary formation to resurrect 'liberal globalisation' or, as the Economist magazine would have it, 'the centre ground of politics.'

51 Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs joined their Labour associates behind Umunna. These 101 MPs are beginning the process of getting the mainstream parties, Parliament and the British people comfortable with the idea that future alliances and and allegiances can emerge 'beyond' the battle between Corbyn's Labour and a fragile Tory government. Indeed an early initiative in the new Parliament was essential to establish the new ground.

The political battle lines in British society are clearer today than at any time since the 1970s. The creation of a new centrist party is undoubtedly desired by a significant section of the British establishment - and wider - but ruling class intervention into Britain's political crisis is not designed to clarify Britain's condition. Rather the opposite. Nevertheless, this pantomime in Parliament will continue. The strength won by the Corbyn Labour Party in the recent General Election is a huge and unexpected obstacle to the 'centrists.' But the process of levering a split in the Party has started.

This is another reason why political leadership in British society now depends on the action, organisation and mobilisation of the British people - to remove the Tories now and win a great victory for the Corbyn Labour Party as soon as possible.