The U.K.’s opposition Labour Party suffered a dramatic split on Monday morning after a group of its politicians decided to leave in protest over leader Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of Brexit.
The breakaway group comprises the influential pro-European parliamentarian Chuka Umunna, as well as Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey.
The MPs, who will now sit in parliament as The Independent Group, have called on their Conservative counterparts to join them in resigning from their parties. In a speech explaining the move, Umunna asked MPs to “leave your parties and join us”. “We’ll treat you like adults,” he added.
The Independent Group has been motivated by Labour’s failure “to take a lead in addressing the challenge of Brexit and to provide a strong and coherent alternative to the Conservatives’ approach”.
It wants Labour to campaign more enthusiastically for another referendum on staying in the European Union and not to help get Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal through the parliament.
It marks the most dramatic split in the U.K.’s second-largest party in just under four decades. It remains to be seen whether powerful pro-European Conservative lawmakers, such as Dominic Grieve and Nick Boles, who have publicly opposed British Prime Minister Theresa May’s approach to Brexit, will join their Labour colleagues in resigning.
The move comes as the British Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay heads back to Brussels to continue seeking changes to the Irish backstop — the contentious plan baked into May’s preferred withdrawal agreement that is aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland. But few expect a breakthrough.
Sterling dropped amid the continued uncertainty from $1.29138 at 07:40 GMT to $1.28944 at 08:30 GMT before regaining its losses to trade at $1.29353 at around 11:15.
Elsewhere, car giant Porsche has warned U.K. customers they might have to pay 10% extra for cars delivered after Britain leaves the EU.
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