02 September 2024 , 14:40
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Jeremy Corbyn and four other pro-Palestinian MPs elected in July’s election on Monday formed a group called the Independent Alliance in a bid to exercise more influence in the Commons.
With five members, the new faction will have the same parliamentary strength as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), giving it equal sway in terms of getting called by the Speaker to ask questions of the Government.
As well as the former Labour leader representing Islington North, it comprises Shockat Adam (who beat Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South), Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr), Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) and Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley).
Unlike Reform and the DUP, the group will not have a formal leadership structure or whipping process. But in a joint statement, the MPs urged others to join them.
“We were elected by our constituents to provide hope in a Parliament of despair,” they said, attacking Labour for planning to scrap the winter fuel allowance for all pensioners and for continuing arms sales to Israel.
The Independent Alliance added: “Millions of people are crying out for a real alternative to austerity, inequality and war – and their voices deserve to be heard.
"As individuals we were voted by our constituents to represent their concerns in Parliament on these matters, and more, and we believe that as a collective group we can carry on doing this with greater effect.
“The more MPs who are prepared to stand up for these principles, the better. Our door is always open to other MPs who believe in a more equal and peaceful world.”
Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch said she was “far more worried” about the emergence of “sectarian Islamist politics” under the independent MPs in the Commons than by the breakthrough of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Speaking at the launch of her leadership campaign, the shadow minister attacked “alien politics that has no place here”, adding: “It’s the sort of politics we need to defeat, and defeat quickly.”