A rift between Sir Keir Starmer’s office and the Labour grassroots over tactical voting has broken out, as activists urged the party to form a “non-aggression” pact with the Liberal Democrats to defeat the Tories at upcoming by-elections.
There is growing frustration among Labour campaigners and some MPs that the informal alliance with Ed Davey’s party at recent by-elections in North Shropshire, Tiverton and Wakefield won’t be revived for crucial contests ahead.
Labour HQ has ordered the party to campaign hard in Nadine Dorries’ Mid-Bedfordshire constituency – despite warnings that the mostly rural home counties seat is “natural territory” for the Lib Dems and a three-way contest could split the vote and see the Tories cling on.
One Labour insider told The Independent: “It would be madness for us to fight this seat hard. There would only be one winner – the Tories.”
Neal Lawson, director of the centre-left group Compass, which advocates tactical voting, has accused Labour of “petty tyranny” after being told in a “heart-breaking” letter that could be expelled from the party for a 2021 tweet calling on some voters to back the Greens at the local elections.
Labour said the former Gordon Brown speechwriter was told he had two weeks to respond to allegations that he broke the rules by expressing support for another party. But the Compass organiser said he stands by the tweet and wants to keep fighting for the “spirit of pluralism”.
Unrepentant, Mr Lawson told The Independent: “Why is Labour running a proper campaign in Mid-Bedfordshire and getting shadow cabinet members out campaigning? I don’t get why they’re slugging it out – all they’ll do is split the vote.”
It comes as figures shared with The Independent reveal the success of a tactical voting campaign at England’s recent local elections.
Compass had targeted 64 Tory-held marginals at May’s vote – areas controlled by the Tories despite votes for left-wing parties being higher than for right-wing parties. After the election, only 15 remain in Tory hands.
Mr Lawson said the rise of tactical voting had been helped by local Labour, Lib Dem and Green activists forging “under the radar” informal agreements to field “paper candidates” – politicians who do little or no campaigning – in some areas.
“Activists and voters are way ahead of the party leaders – they’re thinking about how best to get the Tories out,” said Mr Lawson. “It would be helpful if the leadership could help signal they are okay with cooperation. But that is not what is happening.”
The former Brown adviser isn’t the only one facing discipline. He said Labour’s regional offices “are being told to go after members who have done any electoral deals [at the local elections] – the machine is trying to clamp down just as voters are getting more into it”.
Sir Keir and Sir Ed have ruled out a formal progressive alliance to encourage tactical voting at the by-elections. Activists said the party’s leadership are terrified of the Tories and right-wing press banging on about a “stitch up” deal.
But Labour and Lib Dem activists told The Independent that they want to see the parties get closer and build on the local elections which saw informal arrangements agreed “over a pint”.
Some hope it’s not too late for byelection deal that would see Sir Keir’s party effectively step aside in Mid-Bedfordshire and Somerton and Frome, the south west seat vacated by David Warburton.
Neal Lawson, director of Compass
Allowing Sir Ed’s party to focus on “natural territory” would give Labour a free run in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge constituency and Selby and Ainsty, the Yorkshire seat where Tory MP Nigel Adams has quit.
The Independent understands that Mr Starmer’s initial instinct was that the Lib Dems had the best shot in Mid-Bedfordshire – but some advisers urged him to go all out in the area to show the party was on course for general election victory.
As one Labour insider put it: “This would cement him as the prime minister-in-waiting and send a signal that we don’t need to rely on the Lib Dems.”
A spokesman for Mr Starmer said the Labour leader had asked frontbencher Peter Kyle to run the campaign “because we want to win it and believe we can win it”, adding: “We’re not doing deals. We’re campaigning to win across the country.”
Ed Davey campaigning in Mid-Bedfordshire
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves campaigning in Uxbridge
