A new party won't happen. But a new political movement could still change everything

As we approach Valentine’s Day, will we finally see the emergence of a new party – the most heralded promise of Brexit politics – but, like so much of the Brexit process, with more than a hint of the mythical unicorn?

For all the well-known reasons, based mainly on our first-past-the-post electoral system, the chances of a major political realignment are less than slim.

So how might a new politics emerge? One answer is to stand in every constituency on a single(ish) platform, such as stopping Britain’s loss of global influence and economic amputation from Europe, with a couple of other simple pledges, like a fair tax system, or polluter pay policies to tackle environmental damage and global warming.

There are 30 seats with majorities of under 500, and more with majorities small enough that the desertion of relatively few voters can alter the result.

The evidence comes from the two elections of 1950 and 1951. In 1950 the Liberal Party fielded 475 candidate and won 2,621, 487 votes. This was enough to prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority. The presence of so many Liberal candidates helped keep Labour in power in 1950.

Clement Attlee had been prime minister or deputy prime minister for ten years. He and many ministers who had served since 1940 were exhausted. Younger ones like Harold Wilson was already eyeing his chances to move up the greasy pole by resigning and offering himself as a champion of the rank and file left who opposed the moderate Attlee.

 In 1951, Attlee called a wholly unnecessary election as the momentum of the militant left in Labour built up and made government all but impossible. This time however the Liberals only fielded 109 candidates, compared to 475 the previous year. The Liberal vote fell by nearly 2 million with most votes going to the rebranded One Nation Tories, who won a narrow majority.

If today a new political movement (not a formal party)  opposed to the cutting of existing links to Europe inherent in all forms of Brexit on offer were to stand in 650 constituencies, how many votes would their candidates win? Maybe not enough to get many MPs elected but enough to worry main parties into rethinking their uncritical refusal to question Brexit as voters would have someone to turn to in order to send a message that both Mrs May’s and Jeremy Corbyn’s pro-Brexit politics are not what all voters wanted.

 It is not a new party that is needed, but 650 good young TV performers, with enough financial support to keep them going. That’s what would change British politics.