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The website for a new group of Labour MPs who have dramatically quit the party crashed immidiately after today's launch.

The seven MPs, who are calling themselves The Independent Group, quit over Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of Brexit and claims of anti-Semitism at a press conference on Monday morning.

And the surge in visitors to their new website was so high that many failed to access it.

Streatham MP Chuka Umunna led a group, announcing they would form a “new group of Independent Mps” in a protest over “the future of British politics”.

The group issued a statement saying: "We are leaving the Labour Party to sit as the Independent Group of Members of Parliament."

A new website was launched during the announcement, under the name the independent.group.

Those trying to access the site were met with a blank page or ‘error’ sign as demand appeared to be too high.

The MPs who quit Labour are: Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker and Mike Gapes.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "I am disappointed that these MPs have felt unable to continue to work together for the Labour policies that inspired millions at the last election."

Ahead of the announcement, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "deeply distressed" the Labour Party split, but admitted the party has been "shockingly poor" at dealing with anti-Semitism.

He said: "We know that there are members of the Labour Party who have either joined who have clearly anti-Semitic views, or have been in our party for some time and clearly have anti-Semitic views.

"The Labour Party hasn't acted swiftly enough to kick them out."