The politicians formerly known as Conservative and Labour MPs

Westminster’s status quo experienced what is being described as “a very gentle revolution” when eleven MPs – three from the Conservative party and eight from Labour – resigned from their parties to form a new political group in parliament, known as The Independent Group (TIG).

The eight Labour MPs are: Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker, Ann Coffey and Joan Ryan. The three Conservative MPs are: Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston. Ian Austin, MP for Dudley North, has also quit the Labour Party, although he has not joined TIG due to disagreements with its members over another possible referendum on Brexit. All three Conservative MPs, self-titled as the ‘three amigos’, suggested that Brexit was the “final straw” that led to their resignations, criticising the party’s “shift to the right”.

However, disagreements over Brexit aren’t the only issue that led these MPs to resign. Luciana Berger, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree, who is Jewish, said that Labour had become “institutionally antisemitic”, saying that she was “embarrassed and ashamed” to stay in the party. Ms Berger has previously spoken out on the antisemitic abuse she has experienced online. Both Joan Ryan and Ian Austin also cited a “culture of antisemitism” as their reasons for quitting the party, with Mr Austin stating that he has become “ashamed of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn”.

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, issued a video in which he acknowledged that Labour must tackle antisemitism within the party to prevent more MPs from leaving. However, this past week Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, revealed that the party had received 673 complaints of antisemitism by its members in the last 10 months. 

TIG currently is not a political party, but rather a group of independent MPs, meaning it has no leader and no manifesto. However the group’s website does have a list of 11 ’values’ and a ‘Statement of Independence’ that places emphasis on their commitment to “international rules-based order” and a “diverse, mixed social market economy”. What is clear is that the group is centrist and pro-EU, with the former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron saying that it is “entirely possible” that the two groups could merge to form a new political party.

Mr Farron has also stated that it is likely that more MPs will resign in this coming week, despite Labour MP Emily Thornberry telling a Labour rally that those who has defected would be “crushed” if by-elections were to be held in their constituencies. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested that the MPs who are now part of TIG should “resign and put themselves up for election” to seek a fresh mandate from voters in their constituencies.

Theresa May has not expressed similar sentiment, saying only that she was “saddened by the decision” made by Conservative MPs to leave the party. TIG is now the fourth largest group of MPs in parliament – bigger than both Plaid Cymru and the DUP – meaning that if more Conservative MPs leave the party Prime Minister Theresa May could lose her majority in parliament.

The women who joined ISIS and want to come home

Both the UK and the United States erupted into public moral debate over the fate of British and American-born women who wish to return home after traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State and marry its fighters.

At the centre of the debate is Shamima Begum, one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green who left home in 2015 to join the terrorist organisation. In an interview with The Times Ms Begum stated that she didn’t “reject coming here [to Syria]”, describing life under the Islamic State as “normal”, while also speaking of  seeing a severed head which “didn’t faze” her. Since her initial interview Ms Begum has given birth to a baby boy, and has spoken of her desire to return to the UK to “live quietly with her child”. Despite her insistence that she is “not a threat”, on Wednesday it was suggested that the 19-year-old is to lose her British citizenship as she is eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship. The Bangladeshi Minister for Foreign Affairs has since insisted that she is a British citizen, and that there is “no question of her being a Bangladeshi citizen as she never visited the country”. The British Home Secretary, Sajid Javid defended his decision, saying that he would never leave someone “stateless”, which is not permissible under international law. Mr Javid also insisted that revoking Ms Begum’s citizenship will have no impact on her baby son’s British nationality. The Begum family have written a letter to the Home Secretary challenging his decision and asking for assistance in bringing her new-born baby to the UK.

Confused about the legality of stripping someone of their British citizenship? Northern Slant’s own Alina Utrata explains in this Twitter thread:

Earlier in the week President Donald Trump tweeted asking European governments to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that were captured in Syria in order to put them on trial.

However, just days later the Trump administration claimed that they have no obligation to allow American-born ISIS recruit Hoda Muthana back into the US..

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that Ms Muthana, despite being born in the United States, was never actually a US citizen. (There are disagreements about whether her father was a Yemeni diplomat at the time of her birth, which would mean she would not have been born a US citizen. The State Department has, however, issued her two US passports previously making the Trump administration’s claim about her citizenship status dubious). Hoda Muthana’s father is now suing to allow her to come back to the United States, claiming that both she and her 18-month-old son are in fact US citizens who are now being deprived of their constitutional rights.

As ISIS looks close to defeat in its last enclave in eastern Syria, Western states now face a moral dilemma as foreign ISIS recruits wish to return home. Research in 2016 estimated that between about 3,900 and 4,300 EU member state nationals had become Isis fighters, most of them from the UK, France, Germany and Belgium. One estimate is that of about 900 UK nationals who went to join ISIS in Syria, a fifth have died, two-fifths have returned, and another two-fifths have yet to come back.

Meanwhile, around 50,000 Syrian civilians, many of whom fled ISIS, remain trapped in the US-created no man’s land of Rukban camp, while John Cantlie, a British journalist who was taken hostage by ISIS in 2012, is believed to still be alive under the terrorist group’s control. 

Yes, Brexit is still happening

The Irish government unveiled an omnibus bill incorporating 16 pieces of legislation to try to shelter Ireland from a no-deal Brexit scenario. The 70-page bill is one of the most elaborate pieces of legislation ever brought forward by an Irish government, with emergency proposals aiming to ensure a smooth transition should the UK leave the EU without a deal.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney described a disorderly Brexit as a “lose, lose, lose” for the UK, EU and Ireland at the publication of this legislation, stating that he hopes that he “never has to use” the bill that covers citizens’ rights and supports businesses, jobs, healthcare, transport, education and energy. Mr Coveney still believes that it is unlikely that the UK is going to crash out of the EU.

In the UK news of Brexit negotiations by Theresa May in Brussels appeared to take a back seat this past week, allowing the Road Safety Authority of Ireland to quietly announce that Ireland will no longer recognise the UK driving licences of people living in Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Thankfully for all of us Jim Allister, TUV leader and MLA for North Antrim, informed us all that if there is a no-deal Brexit checks on the border shouldn’t be an issue as “there wouldn’t have been a border if the 26 counties hadn’t decided to leave the UK”. Thanks for that history lesson there, Jim.

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt gave another European history lesson while on a visit to Ljubljana to discuss the Brexit negotiations with his Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar. Mr Hunt incorrectly referred to Slovenia as “a Soviet vassal state”, despite the fact that Slovenia was in fact the wealthiest state within the former Yugoslavia, which was outside of the iron curtain. The former speaker of Slovenia’s national assembly, Milan Brglez, criticised Hunt for “arrogantly lecturing” his country after coming to Slovenia “asking us for a favour” (to discuss how to avoid a no-deal Brexit). 

Thankfully, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted that there is no need to worry about a hard border in the case of a no-deal Brexit, as the US Congress will not allow a U.S-UK trade deal that undermines the open border on the island of Ireland. Given the continuous theme of borders and walls throughout the Trump Administration so far, it’s maybe best not to place any bets on the possibility of this happening.

Israeli elections

With elections for seats in the Knesset due to take place in April, two of Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challengers, ex-IDF chief Benny Gantz and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid party, have announced a centrist alliance in a bid to oust the current Israeli Prime Minister.

In a joint statement both Gantz and Lapid – known as the Blue and White alliance (in Hebrew, Kahol Lavan), the colours of the Israeli flag – said that they are motivated by a “national responsibility” to create a new ruling party and heal the divide within Israeli society. Recent polls suggest that Gantz and Lapid together could surpass Netanyahu’s Lukud party in April, especially as the four-term Prime Minister is currently facing three major corruption cases.

Mr Netanyahu negotiated a preliminary election deal between his own Likud party and the far-right Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi in Hebrew) and ultra-right Jewish Power movement (Otzma Yehudit in Hebrew). The deal with these two fringe religious-nationalist parties have been met with criticism due to Jewish Power’s association with the ideology of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, who was assassinated in 1990. Kahane’s Kach party was banned from the Knesset under a Basic Law outlawing incitement to violence, and later was exiled entirely in Israel. Kahane’s Jewish Defence League, founded in the US, aims to turn Israeli into a Jewish theocracy and advocated forced removal of Palestinians. Both the Kach Party and the Jewish Defence League were declared terrorist organisations by the FBI after American-born Baruch Goldstein, a member of Kach and JDL activist, opened fire on Muslims praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs mosque in Hebron in 1994.

In his Shabbat sermon Rabbi Benny Lau, one of the current leaders of religious Zionism, equated Kahanism with Nazism due to their anti-Arab agenda, while AIPAC and AJC – two mainstream US Jewish organisations – have condemned Netanyahu’s merger deal, releasing a statement calling the views of Otzma Yehudit “reprehensible”.

Despite this criticism, Netanyahu has defended his partnership with these far-right groups, and still intending to speak at the 2019 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC next month, just two weeks before the elections are due to take place in Israel.

A record number of 47 parties have reportedly signed up for the elections (on average, about half of registered candidate lists pass the election threshold). This is especially significant as Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior advisor, headed to the Middle East this week to promote the economic portion of the US plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. However Kushner has specified that the peace plan will not be published until after the Israeli elections have taken place.  

Trump and Kim head for Vietnam summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is, as we speak, on board an armoured train traveling through China to Hanoi for his second summit meeting with President Trump. Having previously praised the progress towards denuclearization at last year’s meeting in Singapore, the White House appears to be lowering expectations for this week’s get-together, amid some differences between the president and his Secretary of State.

Trump will leave behind increasing speculation over the possible conclusion of the Mueller investigation into Russian collusion and whether any report will be made public, as well as the legal troubles facing former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the president’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who is set to testify before congress this week.