Breakaway Labour MPs picked their moment for maximum impact

On January 16 — the day Theresa May saw off a vote of no confidence in her government and the one after her Brexit deal was defeated by a historic margin — Mr Shuker registered a company called Gemini A Ltd, which will support the Independent Group. He told friends that the company name was “deliberately meant to sound like a Bond villain’s lair to annoy the conspiracy theorists”. On February 10 the group registered a website and the venue for yesterday’s launch was booked within the past week. “If you’re going to build a new politics it’s got to be the people who are currently on the field,” one of the MPs said. “This has to be a project for current politicians and activists and people who want to build a new politics.”