Poor performance in European elections could finish off Change UK

On Friday evening in the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the latest troupe which seeks to break the mould of British politics took to the stage. The Tiggers, the ChUKas, the Remain Alliance, those for Remain and for a People's Vote, all rolled into one. They were there to announce their 'Charter for Remain' and despite the smiles, the breezy entrances and the jokes, everyone there knew that they met under a cloud; the latest polls showed them plumbing the depths of the low single digits and the day was marked by the party's freshly written farce: their failure to nominate a candidate for the Peterborough by-election. For a few weeks, a few precious weeks, this group had such force, such elan, such goodwill. Yet through a mixture of misstep and mistake, most but not all of their making, it has ebbed away.