The Independent Group is not registered as a political party, and instead run through a company called Gemini A Ltd, which is listed on Companies House. Gavin Shuker, one of the MPs in the group is listed as the director.
This means the group aren’t held to account by the Electoral Commission Watchdog. That does fucking matter. If you don’t subject yourself to the same scrutiny and rules as actual political parties, you don’t get the same participation.
They shouldn’t have been included and that’s a point of principle, Corbyn should have walked in and bluntly said that, and then participated in the meeting. It’s a point of principle but not an important enough one to justify leaving in protest. In a normal situation, sure. But this is a time of crisis, suck it up.
I don’t really think principle has anything to do with this. Think Corbyn didn’t want to give legitimacy to a splinter group of mainly ex Labour MPs by sitting down with them on an important issue. It’s all optics
Would he walk out if someone leading a splinter group from the Tories or SNP was there? Of course not. Therefore its not the principle of giving legitimacy to splinter groups who arnt party registered which forced him to walk out. Its simply down to the fact he dosnt want this SPECIFIC splinter group gaining legitimacy due to his internal party politics.
Regardless he would be completely right Chuka shouldnt of been there. But to actually act like that is mind numbingly petulant and shows an incredible amount of obliviousness as to how the general public expect one of the leaders of the country to act.
That too, and the thousands of idiots working in factories for foreign carmakers who told them they’d lose their jobs if they voted leave and then voted leave anyway
What’s likely to happen in the event of a no deal is the British government will have to bend over backwards in every area to facilitate foreign investment in order to undercut the EU and prevent massive job losses.
