The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens have unveiled a list of 60 seats in England and Wales where they won’t stand against each other in the coming general election.
Heidi Allen, the former Conservative, then Change UK, now Liberal Democrat, who chairs the Unite to Remain group, said that at the next election: “the single most important thing is that we return as many pro-Remain MPs as possible”. This, she explained, was an opportunity to “tip the balance of power”.
Allen, who has announced she will be standing down at the next election, added that this sort of cross-party alliance is “unprecedented”: the last such pact, she is “reliably informed”, was in a 1918. She added that she is “proud that the final piece of work I’ll be doing before I give my pass back… is to work cross-party like this. This is exactly what I thought politics was about.”
How did it happen?
The pact follows a similar deal earlier this year in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, when Plaid Cymru and the Greens agreed not to put forward a candidate but instead gave way to the Lib Dems’ Jane Dodds. Dodds went on to defeat the Conservative incumbent, Chris Davies. Following that, the parties began discussing a broader agreement for the coming election. They tackled the issue of incumbency first (in most cases, the other parties are standing aside for the incumbent), then moved onto other target seats.
Some obvious Liberal Democrat targets aren’t on the list. How were these seats picked?
Heidi Allen and Peter Dunphy, the former Lib Dem treasurer who is a director of Unite to Remain, were keen to emphasise that this list is the result of careful polling and a targeted pooling of resources.
Second, the decision for parties to step aside depends on the consent of the parties’ local branch. In some places, the will was there, and in others, smaller parties were still keen to stand a candidate.
Privately, however, the Liberal Democrats still feel that this alliance will benefit them more broadly in their target seats, even when the Greens aren’t standing aside. They hope that Green voters will look to the broader national picture and their party’s tactical cooperation with the Liberal Democrats elsewhere, and take it as their cue to back the Liberal Democrats in seats even without a formal pact.
What impact will it have on the election result?
Unite to Remain are confident that this could make a difference. “We have done some comprehensive polling on the question if there is a unified Remain alliance candidate standing,” said Peter Dunphy, and “ the vote adds up to more than the sum of the parts [of the three parties’ typical vote share].”
“That boost is real, it’s there in the polls, and it makes a big difference in very many seats.”
Was there any prospect of involving Labour?
Unite to Remain confirmed that they approached Labour early on in these discussions, but were “very heavily rebuffed” by senior figures on the front bench. This is partly because of the Labour Party’s own rules, which preclude pacts.
What is their attitude towards pro-Remain Labour candidates?
Their attitude is simple – for all that, privately, many of the politicians involved in this pact have sympathy with pro-Remain Labour candidates, they argue that a vote for Labour simply isn’t a guarantee of stopping Brexit, because of Jeremy Corbyn’s personal position, and because the Labour position includes renegotiating a deal.
How will it work on the ground?
There are tight rules regarding electoral campaigning, which mean that, even though the group organising this is “Unite to Remain”, they won’t necessarily wear much “Unite to Remain” branding, nor will the candidates who are stepping aside necessarily share their party resources. It is expected, however, that local party activists might help with canvassing for the united Remain candidate.
Why does it not include Scotland or Northern Ireland?
There is a feeling that any Remain pact wouldn’t be effective or necessary in Scotland, where the SNP is also pro-Remain, and where the question of independence also divides voters, meaning that a pact could play into the Conservatives’ hands because of their unionist position.
The agreements between some pro-Remain parties in Northern Ireland happened separately to these discussions.
Isn’t this slightly cheating the electoral system?
All of the parties involved in this pact want electoral reform. They argue that this is the only way under the first-past-the-post system to ensure smaller parties’ votes are fairly represented.
The full list:
England
The Green Party will be given a clear run in:
Brighton, Pavilion
Isle of Wight
Bristol West
Bury St Edmunds
Stroud
Dulwich and West Norwood
Forest of Dean
Cannock Chase
Exeter
The Liberal Democrats will be given a clear run in:
Bath
Bermondsey and Old Southwark
Buckingham
Cheadle
Chelmsford
Chelsea and Fulham
Cheltenham
Chippenham
Esher and Walton
Finchley and Golders Green
Guildford
Harrogate and Knaresborough
Hazel Grove
Hitchin and Harpenden
North Cornwall
North Norfolk
Oxford West and Abingdon
Penistone and Stocksbridge
Portsmouth South
Richmond Park
Romsey and Southampton North
Rushcliffe
South Cambridgeshire
South East Cambridgeshire
South West Surrey
Southport
Taunton Deane
Thornbury and Yate
Totnes
Tunbridge Wells
Twickenham
Wantage
Warrington South
Watford
Wells
Westmorland and Lonsdale Wimbledon
Winchester
Witney
York Outer
Wales
The Green Party will be given a clear run in:
Vale of Glamorgan
The Liberal Democrats will be given a clear run in:
Brecon and Radnorshire
Cardiff Central
Montgomeryshire
Plaid Cymru will be given a clear run in:
Arfon
Caerphilly
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
Dwyfor Meirionnydd
Llanelli
Pontypridd
Ynys Mon
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