The Magnificent Seven must bite the by-election bullet – Brian Monteith

Labour’s defectors should resign their seats and force by-elections or risk being branded cowards, says Brian Monteith

The seven Labour defectors face the cameras. Picture: PA

Now we have the Magnificent Seven, but are they really that ­magnificent, and will these latest Labour defectors be any more attractive to the voters than the SDP were in the 80s?

The first thing that has to be said is that they are fooling no one by saying they are now seven independents who happen to have formed a group in parliament rather than creating a new party. We can all see what’s going on here. It will be most surprising if they are not joined by rebel Conservatives in the next two months, but possibly even in the next few days, and it is also likely more Labour MPs will join them – altogether taking their number closer to 20.

The idea that they will behave independently of each other is obvious nonsense – they will behave like pack animals, voting together and agreeing a common line and approach – especially on Brexit, which is the issue that drives them the most. I have no doubt the seven MPs have other grave concerns about today’s Labour Party, such as its baked-in problem with anti-semitism, and its move to the far left on many issues, but what truly binds them is an unwillingness to accept the 2016 referendum result and belief it must be overturned. So what we have is a party in waiting, starting off with the position of wanting to disrespect and overturn the largest democratic vote in Britain’s history since universal suffrage was achieved.

This is doubly odd because all seven MPs were willing to stand at the last general election on a Labour manifesto that agreed to deliver Brexit for the British people. It was a generally held view at the time that Labour could do nothing other than embrace the referendum result or face electoral annihilation. It should be remembered that while Labour voters overall (including Labour voters in seats won by the other parties) were for remaining in the EU, the majority of Labour voters in the seats they won were in favour of leaving. These seven MPs have been working against their party’s stated position since that election in 2017 and have taken all this time to own up to their dishonesty and hypocrisy by saying one thing and then doing another.

If they had any sense of honour and belief in democracy they would follow the example set by Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless when they resigned from the Conservatives to join Ukip but also resigned their seats at Westminster and forced a by-election so their own electorate could pass judgement on them.

Both were re-elected and were all the stronger for it, having won the endorsement of their voters and able to look them in the eye.

The not so magnificent seven should do the same. They should resign their Westminster seats together and put their case to the ­public so that their positions on Brexit and the Labour Party can be endorsed or rejected.

Leaving the Labour Party they have been members of for many years will no doubt have been a very difficult decision to take, but the fact that they have not yet resigned their seats at Parliament to provide a democratic test paints them as cowards before the people they say they represent.

The same moral challenge will need to be faced by any other MPs, from any other parties, that choose to join them. Carswell and Reckless set the gold standard for how an MP should resign from the party that was used to win public support, but the seven new independent members have failed their constituents and debased the coinage of democracy.