Without tactical voting the tool predicts a Conservative majority
A new voting tool has been launched with the aim of revealing how many pro-Remain voters need to use their vote tactically to prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority at the upcoming election.
Best for Britain, the organisation fighting to stop Brexit by any democratic means, launched the voting tool on 30 October predicting that if 30% of pro-Remain voters were tactical with their vote, it would stop the Tories from winning a majority at the likely upcoming election.
It’s based on a seat-by-seat analysis of 46,000 British people, carried out by Best for Britain in September and October.
The analysis predicts the number of seats that will be won by each party in different tactical voting scenarios.
However the tool has come under criticism from some Remainers and Labour activists.
Journalist Owen Jones tweeted:
Despite criticism, Best for Britain urges people to follow its advice, saying it would only take 30% of pro-Remain voters to use their vote tactically for parties in favour of a Final Say or stopping Brexit to win a majority in Parliament.
If this scenario were to happen, there would be a coalition of Labour, Lib Dem, SNP, Green and Plaid Cymru holding a majority of four seats.
If 40% of pro-Remain voters were tactical, then 87 seats could swing away from the Conservatives and the coalition would have a majority of 36 seats.
The tool revealed just how important tactical voting is for the upcoming election as a coalition consisting of exactly the same parties could end up with only 268 seats combined to the Tories’ 364-seat majority because voters would be ineffectually split.
Best for Britain’s tool went live last night within hours of the vote for a general election and can be found at getvoting.org.
The tool found the following highlights:
- If no tactical voting occurs, the Conservatives will win 364 seats, Labour would win 189 seats, Lib Dems would win 23 seats, Plaid would win 3 seats and the Greens would win 1 seat (Conservative majority of 44).
- If Remain voters use their vote tactically, however, this will change. We predict that it would take only 30% of pro-Remain voters to use their vote tactically for pro-Remain parties to swing the election and deprive Boris Johnson of a majority.
- Under this scenario, the Conservatives would win 309 seats, Labour would win 233 seats, Lib Dems would win 34 seats, Plaid would win 4 and the Greens would win 1 seat (pro-Remain majority of 4).
- If 40% of pro-Remain voters use their vote tactically, the Conservatives would win 277 seats, Labour would win 255 seats, Lib Dems would win 44 seats, Plaid would win 4 seats and the Greens would win 1 seat (pro-Remain majority of 36).
Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith said: “99 per cent of polls this year have shown that the country is in favour of remaining in the European Union.
“However, through our first-past-the-post electoral system, we could still end up with a pro-Brexit majority in the House of Commons, elected on a minority of the vote share.
“We can’t change this system, but we can change how we vote, and we’ve found that four out of five voters are up for this.
“That’s why Best for Britain has commissioned the biggest tactical voting machine in the country and the results are clear. If we want to stop the disaster that is Brexit, we must vote tactically in the next general election.”
Lucy Skoulding is a freelance reporter at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter.
9 Responses to “New tool suggests how to vote ‘tactically’ to prevent Tory election win. But not everyone agrees…”
Tom Sacold
Vote for what you believe in.
We can never achieve a real socialist society and economy if you vote for the Lib Dems.
Be positive and vote positive.
Steve Bonham
When I tried this tool on 30th October it recommended I tactically vote Lib Dem as the best chance of getting a pro-EU MP. Yet in my Constituency in 2017 the sitting pro EU Labour MP got 35 116 (67%) and the Lib Dem lost their deposit with 1 343 (2.6%). I sent emails about this to local and national media and this morning the recommendation changed! I do know that yesterday this site was recommending voting Lib Dem or Independent Group for Change in a number of key Labour-Conservative marginals where the Lib Dems got less than 5% in 2017. It also recommended voting for Anna Soulsby in Broxtowe where in 2017 as a Tory she got 25 983 votes, the Labour Candidate being a close runner up with 251 20 votes. In the May elections in Broxtowe the Independent Group for Change got a tiny percentage of votes. This website is a cynical attempt to deceive and manipulate voters by the Lib Dems and Independent Group for Change as bad as anything by Cambridge Analytica or Dominic Cunnings. If well meaning voters rely on it could well cost the election. I am outraged. Test it for your postcodes. If it gives a blatantly deceptive recommendation then as individuals and CLPs highlight this in local and national media.
anon
The link above that superficially looks like it points to getvoting.org actually points to some corporate shitware thing:
https://bestforbritain.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a706d4e03dc82629db3f7acf9&id=b79492d330&e=b2b19102db
Please do not endorse anti-user web behaviours like tracking.
Simon
Be very careful with this tool – some of its claims are ridiculous or outright wrong.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/30/tactical-voting-could-deliver-remain-victory-in-election-study
Barry Edwards
There is another website, tactical.vote and if I were thinking of tactical voting that is the one I would use.