An Appeal to Change UK Supporters

When Change UK was launched I was one of thousands who signed up as a result on the opportunity being given to break with the major political parties. No one said it would be easy especially as the bulk of the MPs we needed to defect from Labour hung on then and are hanging on now despite the growing threat of a coup against Tom Watson for building an opposition group around him.

Many Labour MP's face deselection from Corbynite extremists. Meanwhile moderate and pro-European Conservative MP's are facing deselection by a move to the right in many constituency parties led by many who were previously in UKIP. When three Tory MP's joined the group my hope rose further. The time was at hand to build a new centre party.

Of course yesterdays split by six MP's has been a major blow to this project and many supporters have given up already with others joining the Lib Dems. However they are not a centre party but an alternative party on the left in my view. A mixture of sandals and anti-Trident views that are not to my taste I am not a Liberal.

I stand in the tradition of Clem Attlee and Harold Wilson bringing social justice and resisting both fascism and communism in equal measure.  Parties change and people change, needs change. That's why I joined Change UK because what we need a return to the level headed political centre. Strong on social justice, strong on defence and strong on the economy.

Ex Labour or ex Conservative we are none of us "Liberals", we are something different who will offer something different to the people of this country. We have made errors, we have stalled in our work, however the need for Change UK still exists. We can survive this setback,. We can move forward against the established parties. It will take time. It will be far from easy. We will argue. We will fret. We will sweat. But in the end it will be worth the effort as over  the coming months and years a new party develops to replace the old.

Politics remains broken. We have been set back but we can fix this. Let's build a new party and fix this country.