Chuka Umunna and Labour rebels to set up whole new party and urge Tory and Lib Dem splitters to help them topple political mainstream

The group's ringleader said he wanted to see a fully-fledged party ready to fight the next General Election.

And he appealed to centrist Conservatives and Lib Dems to sign up as well.

Mr Umunna, the MP for Streatham, is one of the seven rebels who walked out of Labour yesterday in protest against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

The MPs will sit as The Independent Group in the Commons – but have so far stopped short of founding a new party.

Today Mr Umunna – tipped as a likely leader of the group – suggested they are planning to set up a party in the coming months.

He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I would like to see us move as quickly as possible and certainly by the end of the year, but that's my personal view.

"There needs to be an alternative."

ELECTION FIGHT

Mr Umunna was adamant the party should be in place well before the next election, scheduled for 2022.

He told the BBC: "You can't have this done by seven people in Westminster, there are millions of people who've felt politically homeless for months."

The Labour rebel reached out to Conservatives "demoralised by the Ukipisation of their party".

He said: "Whatever party – Liberal, Conservative, whatever – if you share our values, come and be independent like us."

More Labour MPs are expected to join the original seven in the coming months.

And a handful of pro-EU Tories have refused to rule out jumping ship and signing up with the independents.

Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said last night that Ukip-style activists were "taking over" the party.

If the Independent Group can sign up 36 MPs, they'll officially be the third largest group in the Commons.

That would give them the right to interrogate Theresa May at Prime Minister's Questions, and control of key committees.

Voters say rebels were right to quit Corbyn's Labour

VOTERS have backed the Labour rebels – with even Corbyn voters saying they were right to quit the party.

Among Brits who voted Labour in 2017, 33 per cent told YouGov they thought the splitters had made the right decision, and only 27 per cent disagreed.

Overall just 13 per cent of voters think they should have stayed in Labour.

A separate poll for Survation found that when faced with a straight choice between Labour under Jeremy Corbyn and the centrist rebels, voters prefer the rebels by a 17-point margin.

But most Brits also believe the MPs who've quit Labour should trigger by-elections in their seats.

And just 8 per cent of the public would vote for the Independent Group in a General Election – above the Lib Dems, but far behind Labour or the Tories.

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