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[Brett-Butler]

Fans of 80s revivals will be thrilled to know that as well as Bros getting back together, the SDP, formed from a split from the Labour Party in the 80s, have just gained its largest representative since its 80s heyday, with UKIP's Patrick O'Flynn defecting to the party. From the BBC -

UKIP's ex-economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn is leaving the party, blaming what he called leader Gerard Batten's "fixation with Tommy Robinson".

He is joining the Social Democratic Party, claiming UKIP had become an "impediment to Brexit campaigning".

Mr O'Flynn claimed many members had left because of the decision to employ the EDL co-founder as a party adviser.

Mr Batten says Mr Robinson will help him turn UKIP into a "mass movement ... a party for ordinary people".

In a statement on his website, Mr O'Flynn said that when he asked himself who the "millions of sensible, moderate Brexit voters betrayed by establishment parties" should vote for, the answer was "clearly not UKIP".

He is joining the Social Democratic Party - best known as the SDP - as its sole MEP.

Mr O'Flynn said UKIP had decided to put off a decision on former BNP and EDL members joining the party until after the UK leaves the EU.

But Mr Batten had made Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, his policy adviser on rape gangs and prison reform at "this vital stage of the battle for Brexit".

Mr O'Flynn added: "Without any mandate from the membership or the party's elected ruling body to go down this path, Gerard is transforming what UKIP stands for and offers to voters. Many longstanding party members have already left as a result."

Of his new party, Mr O'Flynn said: "I have decided to join the resurgent SDP, which campaigned for Brexit during the referendum and espouses broad and moderate pro-nation state political values that I - and I believe many of our voters from 2014 - will be delighted to endorse."

As Suedehead pointed out when I'd mentioned they were running candidates in the 2017 general election, it's quite ironic that the new incarnation of the SDP are pro-Brexit, when the party was initially formed at protest at the Labour Party's then-growing Euro-scepticism. I expect to see a greater exodus of the "sensible wing" of UKIP now that Gerard Batten has done as I feared and taken the party well into far-right territory, which could see a rise in support for the SDP among those who want a moderate alternative to UKIP.

So, do you think we'll be hearing more about the SDP in the near future, or once Brexit happens, will they disappear into obscurity again?