Knights' Gambit: Labour Leader Denies 'Electoral Pact' With Lib Dems

A so-called “non-aggression pact” between UK opposition parties has been a constant talking point on Twitter since PM Boris Johnson led the governing party to a landslide victory in the December 2019 general election on the promise to "get Brexit done".

British Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer has denied a secret pact with the Liberal Democrats against the governing Tories in Thursday's local government elections.

Conservative Party Co-Chairman Oliver Dowden accused Starmer and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey of covertly agreeing the long-mooted "non-aggression pact" between the two main opposition parties in a letter he tweeted on Saturday.

Appearing live on Wednesday's edition of Good Morning Britain, Starmer was confronted with the allegations by co-host Richard Madeley.

"You have done a pact with them, haven't you?" Madeley asked.

"No we haven't", a startled-looking Starmer insisted. "We are actually standing more candidates in this election than any other party, and more than we've stood for many years".

"But you're not fighting hard for the seats where the Lib Dems are expected to do well, are you?" Madeley charged. "You've backed off".

"We haven't got a pact with the Lib Dems, we're fielding more candidates", Starmer repeated.

'We haven't got a pact with the Lib Dems.'

Sir @Keir_Starmer disputes the allegations of a Labour party and Liberal Democrat party 'electoral pact.'

He says Labour are 'standing more candidates in this election than any other party.' pic.twitter.com/v4m5ojnzel

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) May 4, 2022

Dowden accused the two knights of the realm of plotting to "deny voters a proper democratic choice" in his letter.

The Tory chairman noted that Labour was only standing candidates in 61 percent of the council seats up for grabs in South-West England, one of the last areas with significant Lib Dem support, compared to 97 percent in 2018. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are only standing in 56 percent of seats in the Labour stronghold of the North-East, compared to 78 percent four years ago.

"These shifts are far too substantial to be a mere coincidence", Dowden asserted, noting: "There has been a considerable amount of media reporting of an electoral pact between Labour and the Liberal Democrats in recent months".

"Why have you attempted to conceal this from voters?" he asked.

A local Lib Dem organiser from Cockermouth confirmed the clandestine pact in a YouTube video, complaining that it was only in the west Cumbrian town that "NOBODY is talking to us", while the tactical withdrawals of candidates were "going on everywhere else.

Not so secret @UKLabour/@LibDems pact here. This is their senior organiser here in west Cumbria talking about it openly on YouTube 👇 pic.twitter.com/yBGtLLitGd

— Mark Jenkinson MP (@markjenkinsonmp) April 30, 2022

A "non-aggression pact" between the opposition parties has been a constant talking point among anti-Tory Twitter users since Prime Minister Boris Johnson led the governing party to a landslide victory in the December 2019 general election on the promise to "get Brexit done".

"There’s nothing grubby about being clever in order to win, if it allows you to serve", tweeted former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria, on Sunday.

But the tactic assumes that habitual Labour voters will switch their vote to a Lib Dem candidate in the absence of one from their preferred party, and vice-versa. But the 2019 election saw swathes of Brexit-voting seats in Labour's northern "Red Wall" turn Tory blue, side-lining the Liberals.

Labour is hoping to capitalise on the "Partygate" scandal to win hundreds of seats in Thursday's local council vote, having suffered a net loss of over 400 councillors across the last two elections in 2019 and 2021.

But Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner were also caught out potentially breaking lockdown rules during last year's local elections, an allegation fellow GMB host Susanna Reid pressed the opposition leader on.

Labour leader Sir @Keir_Starmer is challenged over pictures showing him drinking beer with colleagues when indoor socialising was banned.

He tells @susannareid100 and @richardm56 that the police have not been in touch with him to investigate the 'beergate' claims. pic.twitter.com/Ar5lhkk8ya

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) May 4, 2022