Independent Group of MPs would back Theresa May in a no-confidence vote, says Heidi Allen
2 min read
The new Independent Group of MPs would support Theresa May if she faced another no confidence vote in the Commons, one of its members has indicated.
Former Conservative MP Heidi Allen told The Independent news site that the group had decided not to do anything that would usher in a general election.
The comment goes further than previous statements from the group, which has so far said it might support the Prime Minister in a confidence-and-supply arrangement if she agrees to soften her Brexit stance.
But, asked what the Independent Group would do in a Jeremy Corbyn-led no confidence-vote, Ms Allen told the Independent: "What we have definitely agreed is that anything that would facilitate a general election we wouldn’t support."
In the interview, Ms Allen vowed that any new party formed from the Independent Group would do things differently and hit out at the "aggression" of other political outfits.
The ex-Tory MP pledged that the new group would do things more professionally, saying she had been staggered upon arriving in politics to find ministers were not experts in their field and that MPs had to be given "paper with helpful things to say".
Ms Allen is one of three Conservative MPs leaving the party to sit with the Independent group, alongside eight Labour MPs. Former Labour minister Ian Austin also quit Jeremy Corbyn's party yesterday, but he has said he will not be joining the new bloc.
Ms Allen said: “The reaction both locally and nationally and even just within my old Conservative MP colleagues and peers has been off-the-scale supportive."
She added: "I genuinely cannot articulate how phenomenal it has been. I think at the last count I had about 2,500 positive emails versus about 60 negative. It’s incredible.
"I popped into Morrisons for five minutes yesterday to pick up some washing powder and I got stopped by half a dozen people – young, old, male, female, just everybody telling me I’d done the right thing."
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