The House of Commons is in uproar as MPs rush between lobbies, haranguing the Speaker over tied votes and scrabbling to work out precedents. Heidi Allen, stuck in the pandemonium, is an hour late for our interview and finally comes into Central Lobby, apologising profusely. “It’s woeful now, this is not how to run a country,” the interim leader of the Independent Group says. “When you come with a new pair of eyes from the outside you see it for what it is. You are supposed to be in awe of all this and nod your head and become part of the establishment. But then you see this chaos and you think how in the world is this ever normal? The system feels broken.”

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