2017 Green Parliamentary candidate joins the Liberal Democrats

Following the Conservative donor, the latest person to switch to supporting the Liberal Democrats – and in this case joining the party too – is a Green Parliamentary candidate:

Alex Murray, who challenged for the Watford seat at the 2017 General Election, defected to the Lib Dems after witnessing the party’s work in his hometown.

He said: “I have been impressed with the record of the Liberal Democrat team locally.

“They have improved [Watford’s] parks and open spaces and we have an excellent recycling service.

“I am pleased that their mayoral candidate, Peter Taylor, has put improving bus services and introducing a bike hire scheme at the top of his list of priorities.

“At a national level I support the party’s commitment to let the people have their say on the Brexit deal.” [Watford Observer]

Although of course you might reasonably expect me to be more likely to notice traffic to or from the Liberal Democrats, I’ve been struck by how little traffic to Labour there has been, from wherever on the political spectrum (and indeed there’s been a decent little flow away from Labour to the Lib Dems along with the occasional other switch such as the Labour group leader who has just left the party).

As with Labour’s rather muted by-election results (short-ish version – some occasional big vote increases but not making progress in seats – and also not muscling the Lib Dems aside in areas where the Lib Dems were previously the challenger to the Conservatives), the usual surround sound for a political party on the up isn’t there for Labour.