THE MP who unseated a top Labour figure has suggested the possibility of a new formal grouping of pro-Palestine independents being established in Parliament.
Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South, unseated Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth in last month’s General Election.
In an interview with The House magazine, he said “all options are open” when asked whether newly-elected independent MPs could come together in a formal grouping.
Adam said: “I had never met any of these individuals before. Like myself, I don’t think they’d heard of me, and I don’t know all of them either. So we’re just getting to know each other.
“We have commonalities, especially on our foreign policies, etc, but we’re just navigating where we are politically on lots of things.
“We are working together on issues that we have common ground on.”
Adam’s election was considered a major upset for Labour as Ashworth (above) was shadow paymaster general at the time and had taken a leading role in the party’s campaign.
Following the election, seven Labour MPs were suspended from the party for defying the whip and backing an SNP amendment calling for an immediate end to the two-child cap.
The five independent MPs elected in July – Adam, Jeremy Corbyn, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed – reacted by writing to the seven MPs, thanking them for their vote.
The letter said the independents would “look forward to working closely” with the suspended MPs.
However, in his interview with The House, Adam said he was “not at all” working with the newly suspended MPs.
Asked whether he would like to see the seven MPs remain independents beyond their six-month suspensions, the MP described it as a “fluid situation”.
“All of them have incredible political history behind them. They bring a wealth of talent and skill sets with them, but I think that is something that you would need to ask them,” he said.
