The new members of the Independent Group have issued a warning urging Theresa May to change her stance on Brexit or potentially lose other MPs from the Conservative Party. 

The trio left the Conservatives to join the newly formed Independent Group, and said that many of their former colleagues are 'deeply unhappy'.

Explaining her decision to quit the Conservatives, Heidi Allen blamed Brexit and the Tory approach to welfare reforms.

READ MORE: LIVE: Former Tory members address media after party split 

Ms Allen, a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said:" I can no longer represent a government and a party who can't open their eyes to the suffering endured by the most vulnerable in society, suffering which we have deepened whilst having the power to fix."

She was speaking at a press conference attended by what she described as the "three amigos" who quit the Tories - herself, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston.
Sarah Wollaston said she felt "great sadness" at quitting the Conservative Party.

"I am afraid the Prime Minister simply hasn't delivered on the pledge she made on the steps of Downing Street to tackle the burning injustices in our society," she said.

The Herald:

"I think that what we now see is the party, that was once the most trusted on the economy and business, is now marching us to the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit."

Anna Soubry said that the battle for the Conservative Party was "over" and the hard-right Brexit extremists had won.

"As my friend - and he is my friend - Chuka Umunna said on Monday, you don't join a political party to fight it and you don't stay in it and skirmish on the margins when the truth is the battle is over and the other side has won," she said.

"The right wing, the hardline anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative Party from top to toe. They are the Conservative Party.

"Dear friends and now former colleagues who share those one-nation values and principles will, of course, today deny it, but I believe in their heads and in their hearts they know it's over.

"And the reason they know it's over is because we lost the referendum and Brexit now defines and shapes the Conservative Party."

Anna Soubry lashed out at hardline "entryism" into the Conservative Party which had resulted in "tyranny" where MPs were more afraid of their local associations than their voters.

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She said: "Overwhelmingly the majority of associations are being infiltrated by nationally-orchestrated entryism, blatantly designed to remove rebel MPs who they label 'traitors'."

Hitting out at "Blukip" or the "purple momentum" phenomenon she said: "It's a form of tyranny and it's ironic that Conservatives observe and condemn it in the Labour Party but it's happening in their own party."

Anna Soubry said that since Theresa May became the leader the party had shifted to the right and "the modernising reforms that had taken years to achieve were destroyed".

The Herald:

Quoting phrases from the Prime Minister's speeches, Ms Soubry said "citizens of the world were cast out as citizens of nowhere, Remain voters marginalised and insulted as members of the liberal, metropolitan elite".

She added that EU citizens who had "lived and contributed to this country for decades" were "being labelled as queue jumpers".

Ms Soubry said: "I'm not leaving the Conservative Party, it has left us."

"As my friend - and he is my friend - Chuka Umunna said on Monday, you don't join a political party to fight it and you don't stay in it and skirmish on the margins when the truth is the battle is over and the other side has won," she said.

"The right-wing, the hardline anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative Party from top to toe. They are the Conservative Party.

"Dear friends and now former colleagues who share those one-nation values and principles will, of course, today deny it, but I believe in their heads and in their hearts, they know it's over.

"And the reason they know it's over is because we lost the referendum and Brexit now defines and shapes the Conservative Party."

Anna Soubry lashed out at hardline "entryism" into the Conservative Party which had resulted in "tyranny" where MPs were more afraid of their local associations than their voters.

She said: "Overwhelmingly the majority of associations are being infiltrated by a nationally-orchestrated entryism, blatantly designed to remove rebel MPs who they label 'traitors'."

Hitting out at "Blukip" or the "purple momentum" phenomenon she said: "It's a form of tyranny and it's ironic that Conservatives observe and condemn it in the Labour Party but it's happening in their own party."