It’s time for a New Labour and Lib Dem shotgun marriage…

Theresa May has played an incredibly clever hand calling for this UK general election.

It’s already being billed as a Brexit election, but it’s actually about capitalizing upon the turmoil in Labour over it’s future identity.

The remainers will vote Lib Dem, the lefties will vote Labour, the disenfranchised pro-Brexit Labour supporters will vote UKIP (despite not knowing what they really stand for any more).

The outcome of this election, if this plays out, will be a further fragmentation of the opposition — which will give the Tories a huge majority over the next 5 years of legislation forming in the post-EU UK. Legislation that will probably be terrible.

What needs to happen here is something very radical: the Blairite New Labour MPs who are clearly no longer welcome in Jeremy Corbyn’s left wing Labour Party need to defect to Lib Dem. Or create a new combined party. The Blairites and the Lib Dems are now effectively sharing the same ground on the political spectrum anyway, but this will also create a credible ‘Pro-EU’ party for voters to get behind.

It gives the New Labour era MPs a parachute out of Loony Labour, especially if they represent districts which voted to remain. It gives the Lib Dems a new lease of life post-Coalition death spiral. It’s a shotgun marriage made in political heaven.

Chuka Umunna needs to lead it. He’s one of the best MPs in the country, but he needs to stand up and show leadership. Now is the time.