Here’s why the name of the UK’s new political party is very, very unfortunate

Anna Soubry and Chuka Umunna


On 29 March – the date the UK was meant to leave the EU – breakaway MPs known as The Independent Group (TIG) announced they were forming a new political party. They are now planning to be known as Change UK. For many reasons, this new name is very unfortunate.

Change?

The 11 former Labour and Conservative MPs have applied to the Electoral Commission for recognition as a political party. They say this is to ensure they can stand candidates as MEPs if there’s a long extension of Article 50:

Former Conservative MP Heidi Allen is now interim leader of the party. She said:

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We in Change UK, as we hope to be known, don’t just dream about a fairer and better future for our country, we are determined to unleash it through hard work, passion and shared endeavour.

But it didn’t take long for people to question the rationale behind the new name. Because to many people, this group’s policies certainly don’t seem to offer a great deal of change:

Meanwhile, the new name reminded some people of other parties:

The independent petition group Change.org is also not happy. It is seeking “guidance” about TIG’s new name:

Anna Soubry further inflamed this matter when she apparently referred to her new party as “change.org”:

Perhaps though, in some ways, this is the perfect name for the new party. As people pointed out, it’s quite apt for members like Chuka Umunna:

Change UK, short for…

There’s also been a lot of speculation about how Change UK’s name may get shortened. For some people, there seemed to be an obvious connection between certain letters and its spokesperson’s first name:

Meanwhile, others noticed an unfortunate link when just using three letters of Change UK:

It’s fair to say that less than 24 hours after applying to be a new political party, things are not going well for Change UK. And that’s just based on its name.

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