Luciana Berger leads Labour party split over 'institutional anti-semitism'

A group of seven Labour MPs have resigned from the party to sit in the House of Commons as independents, in the most significant split to hit the party since the breakaway of the Social Democratic Party in the early 1980s.

Luciana Berger of Liverpool Wavertree and Ann Coffey, who represents Stockport, are among the MPs from the party's centrist wing who have been the loudest critics of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, his stance on Brexit and his handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.

They issued an appeal to MPs from both Labour and other parties to "leave the old tribal politics behind" and join their new grouping.