A video of Chuka Umunna schooling his future self on the virtues of staying loyal to your party has gone viral after the MP left Labour to found the Independent Group.
The video, which was first published in 2016, called on those considering leaving the Labour Party to stay.
He said: “The only way you are going to see your values implemented in office is if Labour gets back into government, and we can’t do that if the Labour family fractures, if it splinters, like we did in the 1980s.
“Because we know from the 1980s that what that did was gifted the Tories decades of rule to do damage to our communities, to our country and we don’t want to see a repeat of that again”.
In January 1981, four cabinet ministers announced their intention to move away from the Labour Party, citing concerns over the direction – namely, to the left – that the party was heading in.
They claimed “a handful of trade union leaders” could now “dictate the choice of a future prime minister”, and wanted “a new start in British politics” to “rally all those who are committed to the values, principles and policies of social democracy”.
Chuka’s break from the party, along with nine other Labour MPs, has raised serious concerns that the Conservatives will be gifted several more terms in office because of a lack of opposition on the left.
