Political

Greens Party has second thoughts on electoral pacts

The Green party is rethinking its approach to electoral alliances after losing half of its votes in the general election when it stood aside for a string of Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates…

The issue caused a split at the party’s autumn conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where delegates voted to acknowledge that the strategy had successfully mobilised anti-Tory supporters but caused a “negative impact on overall vote share”. [The Guardian]

That’s relevant news for the Liberal Democrats too given the enthusiasm in some parts of the party for deals with the Greens.

What’s often missing from discussions of such matters in the Lib Dems is any reference to lessons from the party. There are plenty of these, as outlined in my 6 ways to make cross-party political deals work and the excellent chapter by Duncan Brack on lessons from the Ashdown-Blair years.

3 responses to “Greens Party has second thoughts on electoral pacts”

  1. The Greens only stood down in Constituencies in which they would have got a very low vote anyway. Those decisions to stand down in a very small number of Seats would not have affected their overall national % by very much!

  2. They stood aside in some places and concurrently lost share, but there may not be a cause and effect relationship. For example, they were simultaneously losing all the disaffected Labour people that thought Blair was too right but could get behind JC.

  3. Not sure Greens were right – but feel there’s rely far less difference between us than either side seem to be able to admit!

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