Plaid Cymru have announced that they will not be fielding a candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-electiion.
From the BBC
Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable told the BBC the partnership between the two parties was “a very welcome development”, and it made sense that “the two strongest Remain parties in Wales are going to work together”.
Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru, said it was a “major step”, but it was “the right thing to do”.
He added: “We are facing one of the most significant decisions, as to whether we are going to be seemingly yanked out of the European Union even without a deal.
“Under those circumstances it is in Wales’s interest and our common interest to work together and coalesce the support for the Remain side in Wales.”
Both leaders hinted this could be the start of further co-operation between the parties, but neither were willing to be specific.
“There is no doubt that the co-operation that this is generating could well lead to wider measures,” Sir Vince said.
Candidate, and Welsh LIb Dem leader Jane Dodds welcomed the move:
This is a historic and courageous decision in the interests of the progressive cause.
In this by-election we are demanding better for local people and businesses, not just on Brexit (where farmers’ livelihoods are at serious risk) but on healthcare and vital rural services too. https://t.co/oQ0dyC0jlf
— Jane Dodds 🏴🇪🇺🔶 (@DoddsJane) July 4, 2019
Vince told The Times (£) that victory would tell the new Conservative Prime Minister that the “Conservative Party is in desperate trouble.”
The Greens decided not to stand last week so the contest is basically shaping up to be a face-off between Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds and the Brexit Party.
Vince will be talking about this latest development after 7am on the Today programme on Radio 4 in the morning.
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10 Comments
This is excellent news & hopefully just the start of bigger things.
I absolutely agree. It now needs to happen elsewhere and perhaps we might see a few Lib Dem candidates reciprocating.
Great tactics, but poor strategy for the Lib Dems rather than the anti-Brexit campaign.
Why – it makes an LD victory more likely but means that outcome will be factored into any coverage in advance so won’t be much of a narrative changer. It is a slight myth of LD by-election victories producing a poll boost. Romsey, Leicester South, Richmond none produced a significant polling uptick.
OnceALibDem: There was a bit of an uptick after the Richmond by-election victory but the party was at a very low ebb then. When it is doing well by-election victories have in the past given a substantial boost because of the publicity generated as have the successes in the recent local and European elections. With blanket coverage of the Conservative leadership elections our party has been out of the limelight recently so it needs a boost to increase the momentum though the date will be just after Boris’s or possibly Jeremy Hunt’s Coronation and the recent opinion poll was not so encouraging as might have been hoped. A good campaign should help though.
Very good news. I am sure there will be a quid pro that we’ll hear about in due course.
Meanwhile is the party focusing on reaching an understanding with the Green Party? Now on nearly 10% in the polls; it would be absurd for the Greens and LibDems to be fighting each other if we face an early Brexit election.
I thought I heard on the BBC news that Brexiteers were joining to support a single candidate. If true the news value may be because of the Tory leadership election.
In the Tory leadership election Boris J. has denied on camera that while he was Foreign Secretary he was not allowed to have some of the intelligence information.
He also denied that Theresa May would do that. Foreign Secretary Hunt agreed about what the policy is.
In a Tory process we must assume that the Moderator is a Tory member or supporter, but the obvious question to ask would be: How does Boris know?
Surely what he does not know is secret?
Did he ask questions which resulted in unsatisfactory answers?
If so, so what?
the intelligence service/s is dealing all the time with their assessments of incomplete and/or unreliable information.
Perhaps other member/s of the five eyes withheld information when asked? (of which the largest is the USA).
We do know that the current US President releases information which he had been advised not to release. (Beyond 100 days).
Wales in not Scotland.
Although the SNP and PC have an arrangement they also have different circumstances.
Looking at the 12 Opinion Polls since the Results of the European Elections were released, they actually seem remarkably stable. Each Party has Polled within a range of 4% or so in either direction & the overall picture of 4 roughly equal Voting blocs remains true. There isn’t any clear evidence of our Vote share falling yet, we stay around 20%.
Whether we will get any Polling boost from The New Leader or Brecon is uncertain. We will know soon enough.
Paul Barker: The poll I was referring to was taken in Mid and West Wales about membership of the EU.
Do the Lib Dem’s really need deals with the Greens. Really it may be OK if the Greens stand aside in several hundred seats and we help them in maybe 50 or so no hopers for us but if Labour stick with their present course we could be giving up on seats we can win that we may never have dreamt of winning.
A deal with the SNP makes a lot of sense on the other hand. There are clearly a few seats we can win in they can’t and lot we will struggle in.