As you will know, our Party has long been recognised as the UK’s lead Party of Remain.
Recently we have been working with the independent “Unite to Remain” campaign to maximise the number of Remain MPs elected in this snap General Election.
Unite to Remain is made up of the 3 parties committed unequivocally to the cause of Remain: The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. It’s really disappointing that Labour would not step up too, but they are simply not a Party of Remain.
We have collectively reached a set of agreements to further the Remain cause and are announcing the details today.
In short, 60 constituencies in England and Wales are involved. Plaid and/or Greens will stand down in our favour in 43 seats, and we will stand down for them in 17.
The full details were announced this morning in a Unite to Remain press conference and can be found here:
We (and the Green party) are standing aside for Plaid Cymru in the following Welsh seats:
Arfon (Held)
Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Held)
Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Held)
Ynys Mon
Pontypridd
Caerphilly
Llanelli
We (and Plaid Cymru) are standing aside for the Green party in the following Welsh seat:
Vale of Glamorgan
We are standing aside for the Green party in the following English seats:
Brighton Pavilion (Held)
Isle of Wight
Bury St Edmunds
Bristol West
Stroud
Dulwich & West Norwood
Cannock Chase
Exeter
Forest of Dean
Plaid Cymru and the Green party are standing aside for us in the following Welsh seats:
Brecon & Radnorshire (Held)
Cardiff Central
Montgomeryshire
The Green party are standing aside for us in the following English seats:
Bath (Held)
North Norfolk (Held)
Oxford West & Abingdon (Held)
South Cambridgeshire (Held)
Totnes (Held)
Twickenham (Held)
Westmorland & Lonsdale (Held)
Bermondsey & Old Southwark
Buckingham
Cheadle
Chelmsford
Chelsea & Fulham
Cheltenham
Chippenham
Esher & Walton
Finchley & Golders Green
Guildford
Harrogate
Hazel Grove
Hitchin & Harpenden
North Cornwall
Penistone & Stocksbridge
Portsmouth South
Richmond Park
Romsey & Southampton North
Rushcliffe
South East Cambridgeshire
South West Surrey
Southport
Taunton Deane
Thornbury & Yate
Tunbridge Wells
Wantage
Warrington South
Watford
Wells
Wimbledon
Winchester
Witney
York Outer
This a bold move by all concerned for the cause of Remain, and the choices involved have been hard ones.
No decisions have been taken lightly, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the candidates and local parties who have taken the principled and generous decisions to step aside at this election.
If you live in a seat where we have agreed to step aside, it is your choice whether you would prefer to help that Unite to Remain backed candidate, or to visit another nearby Liberal Democrat campaign.
We will be in touch again soon to let you know of key campaigning opportunities near to you.
If you are in a seat where Plaid Cymru or the Greens have stepped aside for us, please do thank them, in public and private and welcome any of their volunteers who want to help your campaign.
This worked very well in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.
I know that agreements like these will always cause concern and court controversy.
But Brexit is a crisis for our country, and extraordinary times need extraordinary measures.
This set of agreements gives us the best chance of maximising our number of MPs and of electing other Remain voices in the next Parliament.
Together we can stop Brexit.