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Hilary Clarke

The UK appears to be heading for a general election in the autumn and amid political tumult, the party most confident at facing a snap election appears to be the centrist anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.
Boris Johnson, Britain’s new prime minister, has said the UK does not need to go to the polls.
But with a working majority of just one and the growing likelihood of a no-confidence vote when parliamentarians return from their summer holidays in September, he might not have a choice, something of which he seems acutely aware.
Everything Johnson has done so far, including huge spending promises on health and infrastructure and a tour of the UK immediately after he was appointed Conservative leader suggests he has his eyes on an election.
Downing Street cancels staff leave, hinting at likelihood of UK snap election
Johnson has put in situ staff such as political strategist Dominic Cummings, mastermind behind the Vote Leave campaign, and stuffed his cabinet with hardline Brexiteers to steer voters away from his rival on the right – Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party.
Waiting in the wings to pick up the votes of anti-Brexit Conservative voters are the Lib Dems.
“It increasingly looks like – given the Vote Leave, ultra-hard Brexit complexion of the government – that the Conservatives are saying to Remain-voting, or even soft Brexit Tory voters, we are no longer interested in you,” said Chuka Umunna, the former Labour politician who co-founded the Change UK party before joining the Lib Dems.
Now under the leadership of the Scottish MP Jo Swinson, the first woman to run the party, the Lib Dems have been having a good run lately.

The party surged in the European Parliament elections in May, going from one seat to 16.
It then, by entering into a pact with the Green Party and the Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru, took the Brecon and Radnorshire parliamentary seat from the Conservatives.
An opinion poll by YouGov published last week put the Lib Dems close behind the Conservatives and, with 21 per cent of the vote, just one percentage point behind Labour as Remain voters desert both the main parties.
The Lib Dems currently have 13 MPs and the UK media is awash with rumours that others could be preparing to jump ship.
New British PM Boris Johnson’s ruthless purge of enemies before moving into No 10 Downing St
Former Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, who is now an independent and pro-Remain Conservative MP Philip Lee, were considering over the summer whether to join the Lib Dems.
Talks were also being held with the ex-Tory Heidi Allen, MP for South Cambridgeshire, according to an article by Business Insider, who is now running a campaign for anti-Brexit parties to unite to stop the UK’s departure from the EU.

An article in The Spectator on Friday claimed that Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Lib Dems were in talks to stand down candidates in targeted seats to repeat the strategy’s success in last month’s by-election in Wales.
Journalist Nick Cohen claimed that the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru would announce 30 joint candidates.


They would then announce 30 more a week later and a final 40 on September 6. Pro-Remain sitting MPs of both the Labour and Conservative parties would not be challenged.
Target seats include Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s staunchly Remain seat of North Islington and the Somerset seat of the ultra-Conservative, pro-Brexit lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Corbyn won 73 per cent of the vote in the 2017 general election, yet his constituency is staunchly Remain.
Jeremy Corbyn: Britain’s saviour or great white nope?
Johnson’s own constituency in Uxbridge in west London could also be a target. Labour’s candidate there is very young and has in the past been accused of making anti-Semitic comments.
None of the pro-Remain parties have confirmed that an electoral pact is under way – on Twitter Saturday the Green Party – which is to the left of the Lib Dems but has just one MP at the present time – denied any deals had been done.
“Hey @NickCohen4 – a riveting read here,” the Green Party tweeted.
“We’re fascinated to hear news about these proposals. Can you tell us more?”

Hey @NickCohen4 - a rivetting read here.

We're fascinated to hear news about these proposals.

Can you tell us more?https://t.co/YrcScbiqBh
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) August 9, 2019

Given the success in the Brecon and Radnorshire, and the possibility such a pact would also give the Green Party some more parliamentary seats, Cohen could still be right.
“It’s not utterly unworkable nor completely far-fetched,” said Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.
“But without Labour participating it’s unlikely to do the trick for Remain.”
Many Green Party voters will never forgive the Liberal Democrats under the leadership of Nick Clegg, now a senior executive with Facebook, for entering into an alliance with the Conservative Party in 2010.




Their support, it has been argued, enabled the Conservatives to drive through their austerity programme.
Corbyn has ruled out any pact with Swinson.
“We would not be in this crisis if it wasn’t for the Lib Dems,” said the pro-Corbyn commentator Owen Jones in a video message on Twitter.
“They helped breed massive disillusionment and anger without which Brexit would not have happened.”
Explained: can a UK election stop a no-deal Brexit?
Even alone, the Lib Dems seem certain to make gains.
They only need 45 votes to win the pro-Remain Richmond Park, their top target seat in England, from Johnson ally Zak Goldsmith, brother of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s former wife Jemima.
They narrowly lost the seat having briefly taken the seat from the Conservatives for six months after Goldsmith resigned and called a by-election in protest at the decision to expand Heathrow Airport.
Whatever happens in between with Brexit, the next election will be the first in the UK to be a four-party race more akin to the politics of mainland Europe, than the UK where politics have traditionally been Labour versus Conservative.

Neither Johnson nor Corbyn seem likely to now build the kind of mainstream coalition among voters that usually delivers governments with credible majorities.
The next election will be at least a four-horse race.
The irony being the UK political scene is becoming more and more like the coalition-led politics of most of mainland Europe.
If there is to be a new centrist force to stop Brexit as many hope, then, at the moment at least, the Lib Dems seem the best bet, but Remainers shouldn’t count on it.


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Britain

Can UK’s Liberal Democrats stop Brexit?

An opinion poll by YouGov put the Lib Dems close behind the Conservatives and, with 21 per cent of the vote, just one percentage point behind Labour as Remain voters desert both the main parties. Photo: AFP

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Fusion Energy Research Centre at the Fulham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, Britain August 8, 2019. Julian Simmonds/Pool via REUTERS

epa07759040 A pro-EU campaigner stands outside the Cabinet Office in London, Britain, 06 August 2019. The UK government is demanding a new agreement with the EU as the EU plans for no deal. EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN

Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, poses for a photograph in London, U.K., on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. The U.K. Liberal Democrats elected Swinson leader as the party bids to capitalize on a surge in the polls driven by opposition to Brexit among pro-European voters. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Downing Street cancels staff leave, hinting at likelihood of UK snap election

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street in London. Photo: AFP

Boris Johnson, U.K. prime minister, speaks with King Abdullah II of Jordan, not pictured, during a meeting inside number 10 Downing Street in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019. Johnson has made clear he won’t sign up to a Brexit deal that includes the Irish border backstop, the fallback provision negotiated between Brussels and his predecessor, Theresa May, to ensure the U.K.’s land frontier with the EU remains open. Photographer: Will Oliver/Pool via Bloomberg

Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn talks with residents and members of the emergency services in the town of Whaley Bridge in northern England on August 5, 2019 during a visit to see the emergency operation to secure the damaged Toddbrook Reservoir dam and the town. - Emergency services continued to work at a reservoir in central England that threatens to flood an entire town, following further heavy rain. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns inside 10 Downing Street in central London on August 6, 2019 with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP)

New British PM Boris Johnson’s ruthless purge of enemies before moving into No 10 Downing St

UK PM Boris Johnson waves outside 10 Downing Street in London. Photo: AFP

Larry, the Downing Street cat, sits outside the front door of 10 Downing Street in London on July 10, 2019. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP)

epa07737748 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II welcomes newly elected leader of the Conservative party Boris Johnson during an audience in Buckingham Palace, London, Britain, 24 July 2019 where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Former London mayor and foreign secretary Boris Johnson is taking over the post after his election as party leader was announced the previous day. Theresa May stepped down as British Prime Minister following her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 07 June. EPA-EFE/VICTORIA JONES / POOL

epa07737559 Carrie Symonds (C), girlfriend of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and staff wait for his arrival at Downing Street following his appointment by the Queen in London, Britain, 24 July 2019. Former London mayor and foreign secretary Boris Johnson is taking over the post after his election as party leader was announced the previous day. Theresa May stepped down as British Prime Minister following her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 07 June. EPA-EFE/VICKIE FLORES

epa07737843 Prime Minister Boris Johnson is clapped into 10 Downing Street central London, Britain, 24 July 2019 by staff after seeing Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Former London mayor and foreign secretary Boris Johnson is taking over the post after his election as party leader was announced the previous day. Theresa May stepped down as British Prime Minister following her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 07 June. EPA-EFE/Stefan Rousseau / POOL

epa07738443 Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid leaves as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson begins his new term at Downing Street in London, Britain, 24 July 2019. Theresa May stepped down as British Prime Minister following her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 07 June. Former London mayor and foreign secretary Boris Johnson is taking over the post after he was election as Tories party leader was announced the previous day. EPA-EFE/Hollie Adams

A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Dominic Cummings, head of the Vote Leave campaign during the EU referendum, giving evidence to a session of the Treasury Committee at the Houses of Parliament in London on April 20, 2016 - Incoming British prime minister Boris Johnson will bring in Dominic Cummings, the controversial head of the 2016 Brexit campaign, as a senior adviser, a source close to Johnson said on July 24, 2019. (Photo by HO / PRU / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / PRU " - NO USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, SATIRICAL, MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Britain’s PM Boris Johnson holds his first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London. Photo: AFP

Jeremy Corbyn: Britain’s saviour or great white nope?

Critics say Jeremy Corbyn is missing in action, unelectable and whose insistence on clinging on to power is threatening the very existence of the Labour Party. Photo: AP

In this image released by the House of Commons, new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, bottom center, faces leader of the opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament in London, Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Jessica Taylor/House of Commons via AP)

epa07482549 Posters mocking British politicians outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London, Britain, 03 April 2019. Reports state that British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to meet Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn later in the day looking for a way to to break the Brexit deadlock. May also is to ask the EU for an extension to the Brexit deadline. EPA-EFE/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** Jeremy Corbyn pouring pints at Glastonbury 2017

A supporter of the U.K's opposition Labour Party poses for a photograph ahead of the annual Labour Conference in Liverpool, U.K., on Sunday, Sep. 23, 2018. Labour Party leader Jeremy  Corbyn said he wants a general election rather than a second Brexit referendum but will be "bound" by the decision of his membership when it votes Tuesday on the issue. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Critics say Jeremy Corbyn is missing in action, unelectable and whose insistence on clinging on to power is threatening the very existence of the Labour Party. Photo: EPA

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Pro-Remain Liberal Democrats see resurgence in popularity as UK braces for possible election
Supporters abandon main parties after 2016 Brexit referendum divides nation



The UK appears to be heading for a general election and amid political tumult, the party most confident at facing a snap vote appears to be the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.


Brexit

Boris Johnson

Can UK’s Liberal Democrats stop Brexit?

Pro-Remain Liberal Democrats see resurgence in popularity as UK braces for possible election Supporters abandon main parties after 2016 Brexit referendum divides nation

Pro-Remain Liberal Democrats see resurgence in popularity as UK braces for possible election

Supporters abandon main parties after 2016 Brexit referendum divides nation