Instead of exaggerating our differences for party gain, let’s recognise that we have more in common.
This week has felt like a prolonged nightmare for those of us on the left and centre-left of British politics.
Our 20th Old Etonian Prime Minister assembled a government intent on completing the Thatcherite revolution and ripping the UK out of the European Union at any cost. We can’t wake up from this nightmare and we can’t expect Johnson’s agenda to be defeated by politics as usual. It is our responsibility to defy convention, work in the national interest and commit to a Remain Alliance.
There have long been members of Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and Greens who have urged a progressive alliance at the ballot box. Given how politics has been reshaped by Brexit, now is the time that it can succeed. Not only do more people define as Remainers or Brexiteers than as party supporters, but we’re also looking at the prospect of an imminent General Election – engineered to be solely about Brexit.
An election forced on the country by Johnson after the EU (rightly) refuses to drop the backstop and sanction a hard border in Ireland. An election in which Johnson and the reformed Vote Leave operation (now at Number 10) will claim that the UK has been ‘humiliated by Europe’ and they need a new parliament with a mandate for No Deal.
That prospect should be motivation enough, but a look at the electoral map makes the case for a Remain Alliance all the more powerful. Labour has not won a majority since 2005. In that year, there were 41 Labour MPs representing seats in Scotland.
Currently, our party has 7 Scottish MPs and you will be hard-pressed to find a Labour supporter who thinks we’ll even hold on to all of those. The 2017 Labour coalition (which still fell 64 seats short of a majority) has fractured and as the founder of Remain Labour campaign, I can say with confidence that the ‘constructive ambiguity’ of the leadership on Brexit has been the main driver. The Lib Dems have been the main beneficiaries, but are a party of just 12 MPs. Caroline Lucas remains the sole Green MP ever elected.
Let’s get real about the realities of First Past the Post too. In an election that will define the country for a generation or more, do the Lib Dems really need put up a candidate in Uxbridge & South Ruislip and help Johnson hold his seat? Does Labour really want to run in Richmond Park and risk another term for Zac Goldsmith? Do the Lib Dems want to waste resources running no-hope campaigns against strong Remain voices like David Lammy or Stella Creasy? Is it in any of our interests to try to unseat Caroline Lucas? No, on all counts.
If the progressive parties focus energy and resources fighting each other – the only winner will be Johnson and the Brexiteers. The losers will be the poorest and youngest in our society.
Of course, there will be sceptics on both sides. I left the Liberal Democrats nine years ago when Nick Clegg chose to put Cameron in Downing Street, disowning the young people who believed his pledge to scrap tuition fees. They paid the price in the 2015 election and it’s time to move on. Jo Swinson is leading a party who owes its revival entirely to its opposition to Brexit. For all that she wants to distance herself from Jeremy Corbyn, she simply cannot vote for a Boris Johnson-led government – let’s accept that and move on.
Instead of exaggerating our differences for party gain, let’s recognise that we have more in common. Labour, Liberal Democrat or Green – we believe climate change is an existential threat to our planet and we need radical action to address it. We believe that power and wealth and opportunity lie in the hands of too few in our society. We are all internationalists.
For everyone who voted Remain, for everyone who defines as a Social Democrat, Socialist or a Liberal – this week has been chastening. Now imagine how bad it would be to lose a 2019 election to Johnson and his Brexiteers. An election we will lose if we decide to fight ourselves and not unite in the national interest.
Johnson and his No-Deal Brexiteers are ready. Let’s forge a real Remain Alliance and make certain we are ready for them.
Andrew Lewin is the founder of Remain Labour.
14 Responses to “A remain alliance is our last chance to beat Boris Johnson”
Martin
Excellent piece. Fully agree. Doubt if it will be agreed at national level. We need to work for agreements at local level.
We also need a Remainer fighting force that will work in the marginals against Brexshit candidates of all parties.
Graem
I suspect that there will be a Remain alliance fighting against the Brexit right at an early general election, but I don’t expect that to include any Labour candidate who continues to give full backing to the party leadership and their insistence on supporting a Brexit solution. Which will probably be most if not all Labour candidates running. Those Labour Remainers who believe otherwise are just kidding themselves.
Paul Bale
Why are there so many still buying in to the lies the Leave campaign spouted and continue to spout in spite of it being proven again and again that the EU is not the monster but that membership has done nothing but benefit the country and continues defending workers rights, contributes massive amounts to combat poverty and climate change, which Tories have squandered while blaming all their failings on the EU. “neoliberal Blairite capitalist “ nonsense words following the Rees-Mogg Daily Mail lead in lies about the EU which remains our best hope for a good future and a peaceful Europe.
Alex Cooper
If you despise the EU for propping up the neoliberal status quo, then the answer is not to leave and put power in the hands of Johnson and his backers.
That’s a step in the wrong direction.
No matter how well the EU protects workers rights (or not) and attempts to stand up to the tech giants, at least there’s a push in the right direction.
We need to remain, reform and empower those who stand up to the corporate giants.
The notion that by leaving the EU “we” take back control is misguided.
Power will not be handed to the people of Britain. It will be used by those who are in the pockets of global corporations who are intent on dismantling regulations designed to protect the ordinary person against their excessive wealth and power.
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For example, who in the British Government will take the place of … “EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whom tech billionaires now regard as one of their few true foes. It was she who forced Apple to pay €13bn in back taxes after ruling that its tax deal with the Irish government amounted to illegal state aid. Vestager has also taken on Amazon and Facebook and Google and Microsoft and forced them to pay hefty fines or reparations.”
That doesn’t sound to me like an organisation that’s intent on propping up the neoliberal status quo. It’s an organistion that needs to be supported to do more like this. The EU has more clout than us alone to do this job.
http://guardian.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx?issue=17022019072100000000001001&page=60&article=4bcf5c15-4e52-4400-919a-1a34776346dc&key=HWADyM8z%2Bmlcg3KGOyW%2FIw%3D%3D&feed=rss
Martin Yuille
We already have the foundations for a Remain Alliance. It’s called the People’s Vote coalition.
And it has got millions marching. Sometimes members of parties. Mostly not.
So let’s not re-invent the wheel: the political party reps in People’s Vote need to discuss how they will work together
1. To win the democratic right to a referendum
2. To get a government of national unity to rebuild a United Kingdom and to reconstruct it after the Brexiteers’ blitzkrieg.