Britons are so adept at tactical voting that any sort of progressive alliance among parties on the left is no longer needed, an internal Liberal Democrat report into the party’s general election campaign has concluded.
The report, led by the former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, said that while the party enjoyed its best general election in a century in July, rising from 15 MPs to 72, it also barely increased its vote share and won few second places on which to build.
The report is, nonetheless, a much more cheery read than its equivalent after the 2019 election, which was described as “a high-speed car crash” after predictions of outright victory were followed by a haul of just 11 MPs.
One of the key conclusions of the 2024 report was that the Lib Dems’ refusal to make formal pre-election deals with other parties had been vindicated, with many of the party’s wins coming after voters from other parties switched allegiance to try to remove a sitting Tory MP.
“We believe the 2024 election, which saw a high level of tactical voting, demonstrates that the party is right to not pursue this strategy,” the report said.
Farron told the Guardian that while he believed strongly in working closely with other parties, pre-election pacts were “an insult to the electorate”, adding: “We don’t have any right to offer our voters to another party and vice versa. And I think this election proved us right.”
The report did highlight some challenges for the future, including the small number of second-place finishes, an overreliance on a handful of key staff who delivered the election strategy, and the need to work out a message to also take on Labour as well as defeating Tories.
However, a survey of members, activists and others carried out for the report found a whopping 90% believed the range of camera-friendly stunts carried out by the party leader, Ed Davey, during the election campaign, including a bungee jump and going down a waterslide, had helped the Lib Dems get attention.
This was necessary, the report said in typically blunt language, given that before the election “only a small fraction of the population could pick Ed out of a lineup”.
In his introduction to the report, Farron called on the Lib Dems to particularly focus on the “pavement politics” of door-knocking and community engagement, arguing that this was as good an antidote as existed to the growth of populist parties such as Reform UK.
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“Politics is something you do all year round, not just at election time,” Farron said. “It’s about immersing yourself in your community, whether you’re elected to do it or not, and serving it all year round on the little issues, on the big issues. And it’s fundamentally about relationships.
“People who are cheesed off with the system can vent their anger at the system by voting for somebody who basically puts two fingers up to it, or voting for somebody who restores their trust in politics by the fact that they’ve served you and built that relationship with you, your family and your community.”