The 326 Alliance
Breaking the Chains of Party Politics
For over a century, Westminster has stood as the fortress of party power. Behind its polished wood panels and grand speeches, decisions have too often been shaped by loyalty to party leaders rather than to the people who put MPs there.
It has been run like a private members’ club for the parties, a place where loyalty to the whip trumps loyalty to the public. Manifestos are abandoned the moment the votes are counted, MPs are herded into the same voting lobbies regardless of conscience, and collective responsibility becomes a shield for bad decisions. Public trust has collapsed because the truth is plain: our politics serves the parties first, the people second.
Collective responsibility has turned into collective amnesia, with MPs voting in line with the whip even when it harms their own constituencies. Trust in Parliament has eroded because the public sees the game for what it is, and they’re tired of losing.
The 326 Alliance was born out of that frustration. The name is not plucked from thin air. In the UK’s 650-seat House of Commons, 326 MPs form a working majority, the tipping point at which a government can pass laws without bowing to party leaders, whips, or manifestos they no longer believe in. Our goal is to reach that number with independent MPs, each representing their constituency directly and exclusively.
We’re not talking about reforming parties from within, we’re talking about replacing them. That means 650 MPs serving their local communities, answering directly to voters, and owing nothing to centralised party machines. MPs are free to vote with their conscience and their constituency, not because a chief whip threatens them with career exile.
This isn’t a fantasy; the rules of Parliament allow for it. Every MP is elected as an individual, and nothing in the constitution demands party affiliation. The only things keeping parties in power are habit, funding, and the illusion of inevitability. But history tells us that political norms can crumble overnight when the public decides enough is enough.
The 326 Alliance isn’t a party, it has no whip, no leader, no ideological straitjacket. It is a coalition of independent representatives bound by a single commitment: dismantle the culture of party loyalty and replace it with loyalty to the people. That’s it. No manifesto carved in stone, no orders from a central office, just accountability, transparency, and a direct democratic link between the voter and the lawmaker.
We’re not naive, we know the parties will fight this with everything they’ve got. They will smear, they will threaten, they will claim independents can’t run the country. But what’s the alternative? Another century of whipped votes, safe seats, and MPs treating the Commons like a career ladder instead of a public duty?
The 326 Alliance aims for a majority, but our ambition is greater: a Parliament made entirely of independents. That’s 650 constituencies, 650 voices, 650 people working together on the issues that matter, not on how to win the next election for a party brand.
The old system isn’t broken, it’s working exactly as designed. That’s the problem. And it’s time to design something better.
Join us. #326Alliance