What does a week of Westminster turmoil mean for the Brexit debate?

With a new group of MPs taking defectors from both sides of the aisle, Ashley Cowburn looks the impact on Theresa May’s bid for a deal with Brussels

Though they have not yet formed a political party, the Independent Group has more MPs than the Democratic Unionist Party and the same number as the Liberal Democrats (Getty)

When Sky News’s helicopter circles above Westminster, it is usually a reliable sign of political turmoil. The same can be said for an unusually high number of gazebos on College Green – the patch of grass outside the House of Lords from which journalists broadcast to the nation.

This week an aerial view of the Palace of Westminster was beamed into living rooms across the country as another dramatic week in British politics unfolded.

At 10am on Monday, seven MPs quit Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party with a withering assessment of his leadership – the biggest schism in the party since the formation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1980s.