The Band of Seven has found its voice. Will it resonate across the land?

Labour’s loss is the country’s gain. British politics has already been galvanised by the seven MPs of the new Independent Group. By turning their backs on the Stalinist tactics and Hitlerian undertones of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, they hold out hope that decent men and women might yet recapture Her Majesty’s Opposition and make it loyal to the values of the British people once again.

The electoral calculus requires the Independents to keep growing if they are not to shrink into irrelevance. So it is crucial that in the next few days they are joined by other MPs, peers and local representatives. These do not all need to be Labour members; indeed, it would be better if they also included Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and anybody else who feels politically homeless. Nor should they limit their appeal to politicians: public figures of any kind should be made welcome, not to mention ordinary voters.

If the Independent Group is to grow into a party, in other words, it needs to recapture momentum from Momentum. After waiting three years to make their move, they must now accelerate the tempo in order to transform the dynamics on the Left. At the press conference they sounded tentative about choosing a leader, but they cannot afford to wait. Collective leadership seems enticing but it never works. A party needs a name, a structure and a chain of command. Chuka Umunna has genuine ability and real star quality. Luciana Berger is a truly inspirational young woman. Chris Leslie and Mike Gapes are reassuring presences. These different qualities should be reflected in the roles they adopt and the faces they present to the media.

Unlike the Gang of Four who formed the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s, this Band of Seven has a genuine opportunity to alter the course of events. Brexit is almost upon us and they speak for nearly half the country who view this prospect with dismay. It was depressing to see how quickly the People’s Vote campaign distanced itself from the Band of Seven, for fear of alienating Corbyn and his cronies. The latter are a lost cause for them and they should embrace the new Independents as true believers.

Even if the idea of a second referendum was never going to fly, the Remain camp needs to get its act together to take full advantage of the possibilities opening up in a post-Brexit world. Semi-detached Tories such as Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen should emulate the courage of their Labour counterparts and join the Band of Seven. If they play their cards right, a centrist party could hold the balance in Parliament and push the two main parties in a more EU-friendly direction. The details of the future relationship between Britain and Europe have yet to be negotiated and there is still everything to play for.

There are moments in politics when normal rules are suspended and the power of imagination takes over. This is one of those moments. With her impassioned protest against the evil of anti-Semitism, Luciana Berger has given the Band of Seven a moral dimension that the Gang of Four never had. With Brexit imminent, the whole nation faces a moment of decision. Ms Berger, Chuka Umunna and their colleagues have shown Corbyn and his comrades that they will not submit to bullying. They have broken with the politics of purges. They have recognised, more in sorrow than in anger, that they have lost the Labour Party to the hard men of the far Left. Belatedly, they have found their voice. It is the voice that many people have been waiting to hear.