Help Labour Remainers if they’re in danger. Remove Tory Brexiters where that’s possible. But, otherwise, pro-Europeans should vote for the Greens or Liberal Democrats on June 8.
The top goal for those who want to stop a destructive Brexit should be to get as pro-European a House of Commons as possible. That could involve backing a Labour candidate who has a chance of unseating a Tory. There are also a few cases where it makes sense to back a Conservative, such as Nicky Morgan, who has been trying to restrain Theresa May from doing something crazy.
How should you vote?
But there are many safe seats where there’s no chance of removing the sitting Tory MP. In those cases, backing a Labour candidate won’t make any difference. It is then better to support one of the two parties which are genuinely pro-European – the Greens or the Lib Dems. Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit policy may be better than Theresa May’s, but it’s spineless and riddled with holes.
Even if the prime minister gets her predicted landslide, there will also be some safe Labour seats. Where the sitting MP, such as Ed Miliband, has been battling to stop a destructive Brexit since the referendum, voters should back them. But otherwise, it’s better to boost the national vote for committed pro-European parties.
In these cases it’s better to vote Green or Lib Dem. The more votes they get, the more authority they will have to oppose May’s Brexit plans after the election.
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But which party should pro-Europeans back: Greens or Lib Dems? That depends. Both are promising a referendum at the end of the Brexit negotiations to check that the people still want to quit the EU. There’s not much to choose between the two on policy.
When one of the parties has even an outside chance of winning, voters should obviously back that party. But these will, by definition, be neither safe Tory nor safe Labour seats.
The Greens also aren’t standing everywhere. In 31 cases, they have stood down to make it easier for progressive parties to defend themselves or attack the Tories. Labour and the Lib Dems sadly have been so tribal that they haven’t been willing to engage in pro-European pacts or so-called progressive alliances.
Be that as it may, in any safe Tory or Labour seats where the Greens are not standing and the sitting MP hasn’t done anything to fight a destructive Brexit since the referendum, the choice again is easy: back the Lib Dems.
In all other cases, there isn’t any good reason from a Brexit point of view to support one party over the other. Pro-Europeans in those seats should vote for whichever of the Lib Dems and Greens takes their fancy on other grounds.
