Change UK leader says the party may no longer exist by the next election

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Change UK leader Heidi Allen suggests the party may cease to exist in its current form before the next election.
The party was formed by former Conservative and Labour MPs earlier this year, but has struggled to gain support.
Allen suggests she may instead seek re-election as part of a "brand new world party" encompassing MPs from across the House of Commons.
The comments come after a leading candidate for the party described them as a "sinking ship."
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LONDON — Change UK may no longer exist in its current form by the time of the next election, its leader Heidi Allen said on Monday.

Allen suggested she may not stand for the party, as it could be subsumed into a "brand new world party" before then.

"Will I stand again in South Cambridgeshire, my constituency, as a Change UK [candidate]?" she told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme,

"It depends whether we have managed to bring together some of the other MPs from the House of Commons.

"The format might be slightly different but whatever the brand new world party looks like I’m absolutely not going back to the Conservatives."

Allen’s comments came after Change UK’s lead candidate in the South West region for the upcoming European Parliament elections, described the party as a "sinking ship."

Rachel Johnson told the Times at the weekend that she was "the rat that jumps on the sinking ship," and suggested that the party was hemmoraghing support.

She described Change UK as "a terrible name," adding that "they want to focus-group everything and they have a leadership team of about 11 people."

The party, which was formed by former Conservative and Labour MPs earlier this year, has stuggled to gain traction.

Some recent national opinion polls have put them as having as low as 1% support among the public.

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