The former Labour MP Chuka Umunna has said there is no room for two centre-ground parties in British politics after joining the Liberal Democrats 10 days after abandoning Change UK, the party he set up to challenge the system.
Explaining his decision to join his third party in five months, the Streatham MP admitted he “massively underestimated just how difficult” it was to set up a new party.
“It’s quite clear that there isn’t room for more than one centre-ground option, particularly under the first past the post in UK politics,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He also admitted he was hesitant about joining the Lib Dems because of their role in the austerity programme under the coalition government.
TimelineChange UK's breakaway MPs – the story so far
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Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Chuka Umunna quit the Labour party. Almost immediately Smith is heavily criticised for referring to people from minority backgrounds as having a 'funny tinge' - for which she later apologises.
Three Conservative MPs leave their party to join the group: Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, and Anna Soubry. Joan Ryan, ex-Labour, had joined the group the day before.
After renaming itself Change UK, the party gets into a row with petition site Change.org, who release a statement warning it will be 'seeking guidance' over the 'imitation' of its brand.
Two election candidates are forced to resign within 24 hours of each other after offensive tweets emerge, including Joseph Russo, the party's top Scotland candidate, writing 'black women scare me'.
MP Joan Ryan bizarrely implores the audience at the party's Bath rally to look at their palms: 'It's there, the future is in your hands'. The day before the party's lead Scottish candidate felt the future lay elsewhere - defecting to the Lib Dems a week before European elections.
Party leader Heidi Allen suggests Change UK may not exist at general election. 'Will I stand again [...] as Change UK, in whatever format? Let's hope, depends when next general election comes,' she says
In the week before the European parliamentary elections it emerges that Change UK spent £87,000 on Facebook adverts, becoming the biggest single political advertiser on Facebook - including spending at least £1,300 promoting Facebook adverts mistakenly saying it was campaigning to 'remain in the UK'. The party ends up winning 3.4% of the vote at the election, securing no MEPs.
Six of Change UK’s 11 MPs, including its spokesman Chuka Umunna and interim leader Heidi Allen, abandon the fledgling party. Former Conservative business minister and anti-Brexit campaigner Anna Soubry becomes leader.
Party announces it would be renamed for third time after legal threat from Change.org, and has applied to the Electoral Commission to be known as the Independent Group for Change.
Chuka Umunna says there is no room for two centre-ground parties in British politics after he joins the Liberal Democrats 10 days after abandoning Change UK.
Four of the original breakaways, Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith form a new group, the Independents. Joining them is former Labour MP John Woodcock.
Not to be confused with either independent MPs or the Independent Group for Change, they say they are not forming a party, but are 'a co-operative of independent politicians working with you to find new ways forward in politics'.
He said: “The thing that has given me pause for thought definitely has been the time that the Liberal Democrats served in coalition and the austerity. But things have changed since then, the Liberal Democrats have voted against every single Conservative budget since 2015.”
He added: “I thought that the millions of politically homeless people in the radical centre ground of British politics … wanted a new party. And I was wrong about that. What people actually wanted us to do is to work together in the centre ground.”
He denied he was opportunistic in joining the Lib Dems after the failure of Change UK and predicted other MPs could also defect. “I could see certainly a number of MPs, both in the Conservative and the Labour parties who are prepared to do that,” he said. Asked how many, he replied: “I’d say a good handful.”
Change UK, initially called The Independent Group, had hoped to reshape the centre ground of British politics and provide a home for MPs disillusioned with both of the main parties. But it split acrimoniously after polling 3% at the European elections.
Just days before the election, its interim leader Heidi Allen, the former Conservative MP, threatened to resign after a disagreement over whether the new party should urge its supporters to vote Lib Dem.
Umunna had since been courted by Sir Vince Cable’s resurgent party, which has successfully positioned itself as the leading anti-Brexit party. He told the Times he was prepared for criticism of his second change of party in four months.
“I’ve got a pretty thick skin,” he said. “You don’t leave all of the political security of what are the two main parties if you’re out for self-advancement. And I’m not sure what more I could do to prove that I’m not, not a careerist.”
He said he had believed there were “millions of politically homeless people that wanted a new option on the ballot paper – I was wrong on that”.
Cable said he had “developed a relationship – I would say friendship – over quite a long period of time,” with Umunna, who previously said he “never felt totally comfortable in the Labour party”.
Change UK consists of five MPs, led by the former Conservative Anna Soubry – and announced on Thursday it had been forced to change its name again, after a legal challenge from the petitions website Change.org. It will now be called the Independent Group for Change.
It is unclear whether Umunna hopes to fight for his Streatham seat at the next election, or has been offered an alternative. He told the Times: “I’m a Streatham boy, born and bred, and I’m absolutely committed to the constituency,” but added that where he stands at the next election is a “discussion that needs to be had”.
One Lib Dem source suggested he could stand in Richmond Park, the seat held by the Tories’ Zac Goldsmith but which was won by Cable’s former chief of staff Sarah Olney at a byelection in 2016.
Cable’s Twickenham seat could also become vacant if the 76-year-old decided to step down at a future general election.
The former business secretary has announced he will resign from his party’s leadership in the summer, once a contest has taken place. The two contenders to replace him are Ed Davey and Jo Swinson. Swinson said: “I have worked with Chuka on the People’s Vote campaign, and I know the passion, intellect and energy he will bring to our party, and our campaign to stop Brexit.”
Davey said he would make “a huge contribution”.
Umunna’s defection raised eyebrows among some of his Change UK colleagues, who claimed he was the author of a leaked party strategy document urging an adversarial approach to the Lib Dems.