Many Liberal Democrat candidates at the next election are going to be surprised to find that the People’s Vote campaign will be recommending voting for their Labour opponents – and sending activists to back that on the ground.
Liberal Democrats have generally been very supportive of the campaign which is supporting our core policy on Brexit and have been happy to promulgate its messages , help at its events and donate money to it. All of that has helped give it credibility – but that credibility may now be used against us.
According to leaked documents in the Guardian and the Sunday Times (£) the People’s Vote Campaign are going to be recommending that Lib Dem and Green voters in some constituencies vote Labour. According to the leaked document, James McGrory, Director of the People’s Vote organisation says (my emboldening):
In some cases we will be asking Labour supporters to vote for other parties such as the Liberal Democrats. In many others we will be asking supporters of the Liberal Democrats, the Greens or others to vote Labour.
We can expect Labour candidates who are endorsed by the People’s Vote campaign to be using this endorsement to squeeze our vote.
This is madness – Labour is a pro Brexit party and Corbyn has made it clear time and again that what he wants is a Labour Brexit
Anyone elected as a Labour MP will be voting to put life long Brexit supporter Jeremy Corbyn in charge of the negotiations.
The People’s Vote campaign have a track record on this – they pressured Femi Oluwole to drop out of the Peterborough by election for fear it would harm the Labour vote.