Andrew Gamble
Do the Labour MPs who resigned the whip to enlist in the Independent Group (TIG) stand for anything? We know what they are against—Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, or lack of it, over Brexit and anti-semitism. They also have disagreements with the Labour leader on economic policy: they don’t like proposals for nationalisation or the abolition of university fees. But those issues are not the real cause of the split, which has seen the former Labour MPs join forces with a handful of former Tories. The 2017 Labour manifesto promised little that anyone in the party could disagree with. It was an extension of Ed Miliband’s 2015 manifesto, and contained fewer frightening tax increases than previous efforts such as Neil Kinnock’s in 1992 or Harold Wilson’s in 1974. But there is another issue which explains the split, and links Brexit and anti-semitism. Corbyn presents himself as building on Clement Attlee’s domestic legacy.