The Independent Group House of Commons Photo

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About

The Independent Group House of Commons Photo refers to a photo captured of the first eleven Independent Group members sitting in their new seats alongside the Scottish National Party MPs in the House of Commons. In the photo, it includes Luciana Berger taking a selfie with the newly estabilished "Independent Group", SNP MP David Linden smiling and waving at the camera and SNP MP Mhairi Black looking in distraught – the latter going viral with users comparing her facial reaction to convey the state that Brexit and British politics are in.

Origin

Read entry: 2019 British Party Splits

On February 18th, 2019, Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey resigned from the Labour Party during a press conference held in Westminster. There, they announced that they would all be sitting as independent MPs under a group name entitled: "The Independent Group" in response to the party's stance on Brexit and anti-semitism.

Joan Ryan became the first MP to join after the group’s formation, announcing her departure from the Labour Party on 19th February, 2019 and Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen all released a joint statement on 20th February 2019 where they announced that they would resign from the Conservative Party and join the Independent Group.

On the same day prior to Prime Ministers' Questions, the group sat in the House of Commons opposition benches for the first time. John Lamont, a Scottish Conservative MP took a photo of the new group alongside a few Democratic Unionist Party and Scottish National Party MPs.

Spread

The photo went viral after the release of the picture which displayed reactions of several politicians featured in the picture, including Luciana Berger taking a selfie with the new group and David Linden and Mhairi Black, two SNP MPs, making opposite faces to one another.

Twitter user @estwebber had uploaded the photo with text being photoshopped over Independent Group MP Luciana Berger taking a selfie with the rest of the group whilst SNP MP David Linden smiling and waving which gained over 1,600 likes and 367 retweets. Twitter user @SamuelThomas92 uploaded the photo with text being photoshopped over Independent Group MP Luciana Berger as well and two other MPs which gained over 550 likes and over 120 retweets.

Twitter users commented on Mhairi Black and David Linden's facial expressions and many had humoursly tweeted that the two facial expressions had represented the state Westminster is in due to Brexit. Twitter user @LeftLost_Pltcs tweeted the picture with the caption: "I think @MhairiBlack speaks for most of us on the state of Westminster these days…" which gained over 650 likes and over 200 retweets.

Twitter user @StuieDonaldson had uploaded the picture and tweeted: "Who sums up your feelings about British politics, like for @MhairiBlack, retweet for @DavidLinden" – the tweet received over 1,480 likes and over 135 retweets.

Reactions

Mhairi Black had retweeted tweets from @StuieDonaldson, @nicomarc89 and @LeftLost_Pltcs whilst writing "SNP Civil War takes a shocking turn", "#NewProfilePic" and the eyes looking to left emoji – all on the different tweets respectively. David Linden retweeted one of Mhairi's tweets.