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Are Change UK – The Independent Group set to disband?

Mike Gapes, Chuka Umunna, Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen, Chris Lesley, Gavin Esler and Andrea Cooper at the launch of Change UK. (Nicola Tree/Getty) - Credit: Getty Images

MPs from Change UK look set to hold a meeting to discuss the party’s future after a set of European election results where the party failed to secure a seat.

The party’s eleven MPs are said to have different perspectives on what their future will involve.

According to Guido Fawkes a number are supportive of disbanding the party, and moving to the Liberal Democrats, following its surge in the local and European elections.

It includes Chuka Umunna and interim leader Heidi Allen.

However, according to the Guardian, Labour MPs Joan Ryan, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey, and the former Conservative MP Anna Soubry propose to carry on fighting.

Following the result, MPs in Change UK claimed it was a “good” result for a new party, but some were critical of the approach to the elections.

MP Anna Soubry said: “It’s bizarre for an interim leader to tell people on the eve of a poll not to vote for their own party.”

Interim leader Heidi Allen has previously said she would like the MPs to be in the “same vehicle” as Lib Dem MPs. Asked if she meant the same party, Allen replied: “Yeah, probably, I don’t know. This partisan thing completely passes me by and when I look across Europe, they seem to do pretty well with coalitions.

“I don’t know what the format will be, but will we be singing from the same hymn sheet? I would hope as a collective, let’s call us a collective, somewhere in the middle with other likeminded colleagues. I don’t think it’s sensible to be too prescriptive at the moment.”

But Allen added to be a “real insurgent force”, the alliance had to be “brand new”.

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