AS of yesterday, Ian Austin was the latest MP to join the exodus from the Labour and Conservative parties.

‘Who he’ you may ask? Well, Mr Austin does have the distinction of being ordered by the Commons deputy speaker to apologise to our own Tobias Ellwood for referring to him as an ‘idiot’, and has a bit of a reputation as a tough talker.

Like the members of the new ‘Independent Group’ (TIG), which he has not joined, Mr Austin doesn’t feel he needs to put his change of heart to the electorate, and thus far he has not mentioned any difference of opinion with the leadership on policy or Brexit.

Of Jewish heritage himself, Mr Austin has referred to the Labour Party’s sketchy record on anti-Semitism as the chief cause of his defection – a non-policy concern which perhaps lets him off the hook.

As for the TIGs, their contempt for democracy shines through in every action they have taken to date. We can expect them to fill the news cycles for a considerably longer time than would normally be the case for a clique of defecting nobodies.

There is great sympathy for their cause – which I will come to – within both of their predecessor parties, they will have the full backing of much of the media and, like all the ill-fated attempts to build a ‘centrist’ pro-Remain party since Brexit, they will have a vast amount of money behind them in reverse proportion to their popular appeal.

Their goal is to prevent Brexit taking place by any means necessary.

This could involve a second referendum, tailored and managed in such a way as maximise the chances of a win for no-Brexit or some sort of single market/customs union deal (effectively no-Brexit). However, if able, they will be happy to dispense with the veneer of popular sovereignty and impose Remain.

The EU, its subject governments and supporters have used both tactics elsewhere on the continent, on the many occasions popular votes haven’t gone its way.

Lest we forget, Brexit was backed by the largest number of voters to back anything in British history.

Polling has consistently showed the chief motivation was the desire to ‘take back control’ – even if they were unaware of detail of the workings of Brussels, the diktats of its unelected, small-town officials with or without the flabby protests of its feeble parliament.

TIG sets itself against this, because at heart they don’t believe their duty is to represent the people. They believe they are there to lead the people.

They have declined to set up a party, likely more to avoid the hard work of establishing a shared set of policies than to disguise their donations, as some have uncharitably suggested.

Of course any policy points which differed from the manifesto on which they were elected would fuel demands for by-elections. It is all very well saying we elect the candidate, not the party, but the candidates here were elected on the basis of what their parties were saying.

Their parties both said they would implement Brexit. If TIG want to be viewed with any integrity, now or in the future, they must resign and put their views honestly to their constituents.

Too close to home

THE dregs of ISIS must be having a good chuckle at our expense.

This was an easy win for them, at the very least they knew the prospect of the return to the West of Shamima Begum and her fellow traitors would provoke a flood of angsty hand-wringing, expose the feeble moral relativism at the heart of our culture and no doubt exacerbate divisions within our society as well. At most, and this remains the likeliest outcome, they will successfully infiltrate a host of their brainwashed monsters back into Europe to continue dealing death and devastation.

A cult is a hard thing to break out of, and lest we hope this particular apocalyptic death cult is dispirited at its defeat in the desert ­– for them, it was always going to end in mutual destruction.

Begum, like ISIS’ other foreign fighters, grew up with the unmatched rights and privileges of the secular democracies of the West, and threw them away to not only be party to the murder of her fellow citizens, but also to destroy any chance of peace and progress, and rights and privileges, in the territories under their direct control.

Let Syria and Iraq decide their fate. And if their families feel the ties of blood are enough to overcome participation in mass murder and attempted genocide, mass rape, slavery, use of child soldiers and televised cruel and unusual punishment and execution, they are welcome to join them there.