Election Aftermath By Party: The Lib Dems

I am going to start with the Liberal Democrats because they are widely reported as having a disaster. They lost their leader and did not break through except in, I think three constituencies, one in Scotland and two in the south of England. But once again, if you look at the figures, they added 1.3 million votes onto their 2017 total.  This compares with just 300,000 votes by Boris over May. Indeed the Lib Dem tally is more than all the other parties put together.  So their aggressive Stop Brexit message was not as silly as  many think. If you add the SNP with 1.242 million votes to the Lib Dem’s 3.7 million you have nearly 5 million supporting parties wanting to revoke Article 50. That is a big number.

The problem for the Lib Dems was using their advantage with tactical skill to make it work its way into seats. Here the path is littered with mis-steps. Refusing to accept Corbyn as leader of a minority government and declaring both Boris and Corbyn ‘unfit’ may be deadly true but it was childish politics. Labour, defending as it was two thirds of its seats in Leave constituencies, could not come into the open as a Remain party, but it could have certainly gone along with an anti Boris alliance, which would have saved some Labour seats and rewarded the Lib Dems with a few more gains. Allowing the Lib Dem success in the Euro elections, which are proportional voting, to go to her head, Swinson, by declaring herself a prime minister in waiting under a first past the post structure, looked ridiculous. It lacked maturity and cost respect.

But the core message of being willing to go to any length to stop Brexit was a high value and courageous idea, which sadly was frittered away. Jo Swinson paid the price. Politics is brutal.