List of Remain Alliance seats published
The list of seats where Greens, Plaid and Lib Dems are standing down for each other in order to maximise the number of Remain MPs under the Unite to Remain plan has now been published.
James Gurling, chair of the party’s Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC) explains:
Unite to Remain is made up of the three parties committed unequivocally to the cause of Remain: The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. It’s really disappointing that Labour would not step up too, but they are simply not a Party of Remain.
We have collectively reached a set of agreements to further the Remain cause and are announcing the details today.
In short, 60 constituencies in England and Wales are involved. Plaid and/or Greens will stand down in our favour in 43 seats, and we will stand down for them in 17.
This a bold move by all concerned for the cause of Remain, and the choices involved have been hard ones.
No decisions have been taken lightly, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the candidates and local parties who have taken the principled and generous decisions to step aside at this election.
If you live in a seat where we have agreed to step aside, it is your choice whether you would prefer to help that Unite to Remain backed candidate, or to visit another nearby Liberal Democrat campaign.
If you are in a seat where Plaid Cymru or the Greens have stepped aside for us, please do thank them, in public and private and welcome any of their volunteers who want to help your campaign. This worked very well in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.
Unite To Remain’s Pete Dunphy tells me the group had approached the Labour Party about working together in the early days of the campaign but they were strongly “rebuffed” by people in the Shadow Cabinet
— Adam Payne (@adampayne26) November 7, 2019
Welcoming the announcement Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson said:
I am delighted that this arrangement will help elect more pro-remain MPs in the next Parliament.
In the 43 seats agreed today, as well as hundreds more across the country, it is clear that the Liberal Democrats are the strongest party of Remain.
A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to stop Brexit, so that we can invest the £50bn Remain bonuses in our public services and build a brighter future.
Tom Deakin, one of those standing down (in Exeter), explained:
When asked whether I would be willing to stand aside, for this time only, to increase the chance of remain-supporting candidates in Devon and beyond defeating Brexit supporting candidates, there was no doubt in my mind that this is the right thing to do.
We have put the country before party and before my personal ambition.
Our country is at a crossroads, not only with regards to Brexit but with what kind of country we want to be. With the extremes of left and right moving into the mainstream, it is vital that those with moderate, liberal values unite to put the country first and that is what I have done.
Although the Liberal Democrats won’t be on the ballot paper at the next General Election in Exeter, we will not stop our campaigning to ensure the voices of the people of Exeter are heard loudly and clearly. We will be campaigning across the city to deliver a more balanced City Council next May.
Seats where Lib Dems, Greens standing aside for Plaid Cymru
Arfon (Held)
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Held)
Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Held)
Caerphilly
Llanelli
Pontypridd
Ynys Mon
Seat where Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru standing aside for Greens
Vale of Glamorgan
Seats where Lib Dems standing aside for Greens
Brighton Pavilion (Held)
Bristol West
Bury St Edmunds
Cannock Chase
Dulwich & West Norwood
Exeter
Forest of Dean
Isle of Wight
Stroud
Seats where Greens, Plaid Cymru standing aside for Lib Dems
Brecon & Radnorshire (Held)
Cardiff Central
Montgomeryshire
Seats where Greens standing aside for Lib Dems
Bath (Held)
North Norfolk (Held)
Oxford West & Abingdon (Held)
South Cambridgeshire (Held)
Totnes (Held)
Twickenham (Held)
Westmorland & Lonsdale (Held)
Bermondsey & Old Southwark
Buckingham
Cheadle
Chelmsford
Chelsea & Fulham
Cheltenham
Chippenham
Esher & Walton
Finchley & Golders Green
Guildford
Harrogate
Hazel Grove
Hitchin & Harpenden
North Cornwall
Penistone & Stocksbridge
Portsmouth South
Richmond Park
Romsey & Southampton North
Rushcliffe
South East Cambridgeshire
Southport
South West Surrey
Taunton Deane
Thornbury & Yate
Tunbridge Wells
Wantage
Warrington South
Watford
Wells
Wimbledon
Winchester
Witney
York Outer
In addition, the Liberal Democrats are standing aside in three other seats for independents: Beaconsfield, Broxtowe and Luton South.
If you sign up for my blog posts digest you’ll get a handy one-a-day email with links to all the latest posts. You can also sign up for a range of other lists, including Liberal Democrat Newswire – a monthly newsletter about the party. Just pick the options you’d like on the sign-up form.
We should stand aside in Uxbridge. Last election LDs got under 5%, but that might be enough to put Labour over the line. I know Labour are unwilling to stand down for us, but it would still be worth it.
Interesting graphic on the Peston programme last night showing that, while support for the Conservative Party is positively correlated with support for the Brexit Party, support for the Labour Party is negatively correlated with support for other Remain parties, i.e. when Labour does badly we do well & vv. This vindicates the LibDem Core Vote strategy & justifies the Remain Alliance tactic.
Couldn’t agree more about standing aside in Uxbridge. If we can oust Boris we effectively cut off the head of the snake then the monster will surely die!!
Interesting, Tony, although there are some seats such as Exeter where a decent Labour Remain candidate (Ben Bradshaw) would also stand to benefit from us standing aside.
The overall tone of Jo Swinson’s campaign towards Labour is too confrontational for my liking and there is already polling evidence to show that it is going down badly with some younger Remain voters.
As for Uxbridge, standing aside is a no brainer and the fact that it would leave Remain voters with only the Green candidate as a option to vote for is a sacrifice I’m sure many would applaud if it meant Johnson losing his seat.
It should be explained that this tactical voting nonsense is only necessary because we do not have a STV system, whereby constituency representatives may be elected by all those who vote.
This should be a demand in any negotiations with a minority government.
Proportional representation is a worthy, but more complex, issue, that may need to be considered separately. STV must be the first step, to ensure that each MP has majority support. Ensuring that a government has majority support is more tricky!
I hope there will be scope to add seats to this list. Uxbridge obviously.
But there may also perhaps be individual seats, like Huntingdon, which are not immediately obvious but where events have aligned to give us a much better chance.
In Huntingdon, the sitting Tory MP narrowly survived a vote of no confidence by his own party members only a few days ago; the Brexit party is standing and Labour has ousted its charismatic former candidate in favour of a Momentum-backed Socialist. The Lib Dem campaign team is working for a shock result on the night but the Green vote (1.8%) could be decisive in a close-run contest…
And I guess there will be other seats in a similar position.
The Greens should step aside in Saffron Walden, to increase the LibDems chances
As a life-long Liberal and former Euro Candidate I reluctantly conclude that we should stand down in both unwinnable Preseli Pembrokeshire and unwinnable Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire to make it easier for these Conservative seats to fall to excellent Labour candidates.