AFTER many months of speculation, we see that a number of Labour MPs have now finally resigned from the party, forming a new group of Independents.

While we should welcome their decision to leave a party that is now considered to be institutionally racist, it appears that they are not as principled as they would like us to think.

When Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless defected to UKIP back in 2014, they immediately called by-elections to allow their voters to have their say in this change of circumstances.

Chuka Umunna and his fellow rebels tell us repeatedly that we didn’t know what we were voting for in the 2016 Referendum, and that we should therefore vote again.

So one wonders why he doesn’t see the double standard in telling his voters in Streatham – who voted for a Labour candidate – that they won’t be getting another people’s vote to validate their new Independent MP.

Let us also recall Umunna’s suggestion that the best way of dealing with the dysfunctional EU was to stay in and reform it.

Evidently, he saw no point in staying in the Labour party and reforming it.

The hypocrisy of some of MPs inevitably brings UK politics into disrepute.

IAN WILSON Chairman, UKIP Warrington