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DEBATE: Have the Labour splitters helped the Conservative party?

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Have the Labour splitters helped the Conservative party?

Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES.

After the next election, the UK government will either be run by the Labour party or the Tory party. That’s the reality of the electoral system.

The seven Labour splitters have denounced the modern Labour party as bullies, antisemites, and effectively lacking the ability to run a bath, let alone a country. In so doing, they have provided the language with which the Tories will fight the next election.

Furthermore, this new movement has yet to create the party apparatus that would be required for it to be a credible electoral challenger. It is conceivable that this may follow in time, and in the meantime members of the “Independent Group” may have some limited success in certain metropolitan seats. But I doubt their ability to split votes from the Conservatives at the same rate as they will inevitably do so from Labour.

This new movement, therefore, just reinforces the argument that the only way to avoid a racist, incompetent government run by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party is to vote Conservative.

Olivia Utley, deputy editor at TheArticle, says NO.

In normal times, a dramatic and well-publicised split in the Labour party would be excellent news for the Conservatives. But we are not living in normal times.

The raison d’etre of Theresa May’s Conservative government is to deliver the result of the referendum in some shape or form. As leader of the opposition, many expected Jeremy Corbyn to do everything in his power to impede the Prime Minister on this mission. But, to the consternation of many Labour activists and MPs, the old-school eurosceptic has refused point-blank to throw his weight behind a so-called “people’s vote”.

Thanks to this lack of support, the campaign for a second referendum had appeared to be fizzling out. But yesterday’s resignations changed all that. No longer shackled to Labour, Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna – politicians with star-quality, and passionate Remainers to boot – can devote all their time and energy to whipping up parliamentary support for another vote.

And that is very bad news indeed for our beleaguered Prime Minister.