Chris Leslie, one of the seven MPs who quit Labour on Monday to join the fledgling Independent Group, says his former party has been “hijacked” by a “clique”.

The Nottingham East MP, who was briefly shadow chancellor in 2015 under Harriet Harman’s caretaker leadership, told the Guardian he believed Jeremy Corbyn was promulgating “hard-left” policies, which did not deserve the label of “Labour”.

“There’s a very well-organised clique of ideologically determined people inside the Labour party who have captured the leadership, and the national executive, and obviously tried to encourage those who weren’t in the Labour party before 2015 to come in and take over,” he said.

“It’s the sort of classic, old political story of institutions being captured by an activist group, who can then, by hijacking it, masquerade that they are offering something that people thought was ‘Labour’ – but it’s not Labour.

“It’s passing on to the public what are effectively hard-left policies under the guise of most people’s familiarity with the Labour brand, which has of course traditionally been on the centre-left.”

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Leslie said these “hard-left” activists took over in the aftermath of the 2015 general election, “when a lot of us had pulled over to the hard shoulder and had lifted the bonnet and were looking at the engine and scratching our heads”.

At that time, he warned that Ed Miliband’s manifesto, with its energy cap and mansion tax, had been too statist and failed to appeal to “the Which? magazine strata of society”.

On Brexit, which most of the defectors have given as their central motivation for leaving their parties, Leslie claimed Labour MPs and activists had been “played” by the leadership, which had repeatedly suggested a second referendum was an “option on the table” without ever embracing it.

“I do feel as though we’ve been played. I think they are privately quite happy to see Brexit happen, and it’s born of a rather childlike revolutionary mindset that says if there is chaos it will drive people to the all-seeing, all-knowing leader”.

Leslie said he and his 10 allies in the Independent Group were not yet a formal political party but would meet on Monday to thrash out how they will function in parliament, and what role their supporters outside Westminster can play.

“I think that if we’re saying that the public are fed up with the broken system, and they want an alternative in the centre-ground, that leaves us in a position where we have to start exploring,” he said. “We’ve said we’re not a party yet, but I think it’s something that we’ve got to test out, and hear what the public appetite is.”

Leslie added: “We’re moving on from a phase of heartache about leaving our respective parties, to think, we’ve got to start honing our offer to the British public and think as what that might mean.”

He accused Labour of taking its long-time voters for granted: “You’ve got to get back to a culture where parties try and earn the votes of the public. I think a bit of healthy competition is needed, and a bit of competition is good for democracy generally.”

Leslie criticised the response of senior figures in the party, including Ian Lavery and Richard Burgon, who have strongly attacked the defectors and called for immediate byelections in their seats. Lavery used a Guardian article to slam the new group as “a rightwing establishment tribute act”.

“I have no time for the Conservative party obviously, and I completely oppose them, as I always have. But I think their reaction has been to show a little bit more grace towards the three Conservative MPs who left,” Leslie said.

Some senior Labour figures are concerned about the forthright response of Corbyn and his close allies to the Independent Group. Corbyn told Sky News on Friday that he rejected claims by his deputy, Tom Watson, that a culture of bullying has grown within the party.

“Of course I disagree with him, because I do not wish to be in a party where there’s any bullying,” he said. “I’ll be speaking to Tom Watson in the very near future to talk about that.”

Leslie played down the prospect of a fresh wave of resignations in the coming days but said there were many MPs who were considering their future in Labour – and he encouraged them to take the leap.

“There are many, many goodhearted people who really care about their country and are distraught about what’s happened to the party, and are still hoping that somehow it can be saved. But I think, in life, sometimes letting go is the right thing to do, rather than clinging on.

Leslie denied the group is being bankrolled by big corporate donors, and said the the Independent Group will publicise details of its finances, in compliance with Electoral Commission rules, despite not yet being a political party.

He insisted the group is not allied to any of the other various attempts to form a new centrist political movement, but he said: “I think we want to have a conversation with all of those who have been reaching this conclusion in the past year or so.”

