LABOUR does not have an election pact with the Lib Dems, according to the party’s shadow defence secretary.
John Healy was responding to claims that the two parties have a secret agreement to work jointly to remove the Tories from power.
In an interview with GB News, he said: “What we saw this week down in Tiverton and Honiton was that people decided to vote tactically, that was the public and individual voters making up their minds.
“There is no pact or joint plan between Labour and the Liberal Democrats over fighting these elections.”
Asked by presenter Stephen Dixon why people didn’t vote tactically for Labour, which came second to the Tories in the last election, he said: “Because they judged that in the circumstances this week in this by-election, the Liberal Democrats had a better chance of defeating the Conservative candidate than Labour did, just as in Wakefield, where it was a straight Labour-Conservative fight.
“The significant part of that wasn’t that we had a lot of Lib Dem voters, there aren’t that many in Wakefield switching to Labour, but we have former Conservative voters switching directly to Labour on a level that if it was repeated at a general election, would give us a Labour government and fresh leadership that the country needs.”
Mr Healy claimed that the by-election results in Wakefield, which saw a 12.7% swing from Conservative to Labour, is proof that Labour can form the next government.
“Now the results in Wakefield, If we’re able to maintain the progress and win back other Conservative voters in other constituencies would be enough to give Labour a majority government and we want a Labour government,” he said.
“We want Labour to have a plan for the country. We want a Labour leadership for the country and that’s what we’re working for.
“We’ve made enormous progress since 2019 when Labour suffered its worst election defeat for 100 years.
“Keir Starmer trying to do in just four years what was done over 14 years by Kinnock, Smith and Blair, to bring Labour back from the brink and to put us in front of the people at the next election with a plan for government and a confidence that the public are currently lacking in the Prime Minister and the Conservatives at present.”
Responding to a claim from Anne Diamond that Labour hasn’t been attractive to the electorate since Tony Blair, Mr Healy said: “The 1997 election was the result of a long period of hard work…to win back the confidence of the British people to say ‘yes, Labour in government will give you a chance we can see the direction you want to take the country’ and we will.”
He added: “We’re covering exactly that same ground now and what Wakefield tells us is that people were and are still looking to Labour for the answers to the cost of living crisis, just as we did with the plan for a windfall tax on energy firms to be able to fund help with energy costs, just as arguing for to get the government back off the National Insurance rise that they put on working people to take the 80 off energy costs, and put in place invest big in green tech and jobs for the future so that we can build, make and sell more in Britain and have stronger economy, and also stronger independence as a country.”
