What does the Labour split mean for the People's Vote campaign?

The split of 7 Labour MP from the party is something of great significance beyond what it implies for Brexit, but, for better or worse, that's where my thoughts are now.

What does this split mean for the People's Vote campaign? Spinning Hugo (I don't know him by any other name but his pseudonym) believes it signifies the fact that the chances of a second referendum had become slim. If there were a prospect of moving the leadership in that direction, the newly formed Independent Group would have waited at least until after Brexit to form a group, in the hope of influencing the party leadership beforehand. This seems plausible enough to me, but it's a distinct question for what effects this move will have on the campaign.

These surely depend on how both the independents and rest of the Labour Party respond. If the Independent Group don't show any interest (in this case very soon) on forming a new party, the impact will be small. What limited impact it will have is likely negative, as key proponents of a second vote are now longer in the party.

If, on the other hand, they do, and opposing Brexit is a part of their policy platform, what happens next very much depends on how the Labour leadership read the situation. A clever response would be to recognise that the new danger this presents to Labour electorally is a move of socially liberal, europhile voters to whatever party this new group ends up forming. This does not have to be large to represent a real threat to Labour's hopes of forming a majority government. The easiest way of stemming any move in that direction would be to announce support for a second referendum. This would also eclipse any negative discussion of the split in the news. For this to work, it would have to happen very soon indeed. I am, however, not optimistic that it will.