Seven Labour MPs have quit the party over the leadership's stance on Brexit and foreign policy issues as well as what they regard as the failure to deal with anti-Semitism.
"For my part, I have become embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour party," said Luciana Berger at a press conference in Westminster. She said the party's core values of equality, opportunity for all, and anti-racism had been "consistently and constantly violated, undermined and attacked."
And she added: "I cannot remain in a party that I have today come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic ... I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation."
Chris Leslie, another of the MPs who will now call themselves "the Independent Group" said: "The Labour party we joined, that we campaigned for, and believed in is no longer today’s Labour party."
"British politics is now well and truly broken and in all conscience we can no longer knock on doors and support Jeremy Corbyn and the team around him," he added, although he emphasized the group "absolutely oppose" Theresa May's Conservative government.
The other MPs in the group are Chuka Umunna, Mike Gapes, Ann Coffey, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith.