Critics on Lib Dems’ deal with SNP election paving the way for Brexit
Polls that led opponents to back Tories’ calls for an election to end gridlock
with the SNP’S strong position in the polls. In this alone they found common cause with Johnson – fatigue with the European question, and with it the dysfunction of Westminster, spelt electoral opportunity.”
Alex Salmond’s trial was also looming. “No matter how inclement the weather or scant the winter light, a winter election made far more sense than any alternative. Where the SNP went, the forces of political gravity demanded Labour follow.”
After Mr Umunna met with parliamentary clerks to discuss legislation, the Lib Dems sought support from the SNP. “Swinson called the man whose party would unseat her: the SNP’S Ian Blackford, who quickly gave his blessing.”
On December 12, the Tories won a landslide majority of 80 and Jo Swinson lost her East Dunbartonshire seat to the SNP after leading her party for 144 days.
Political strategist Alastair Campbell, who was communications chief for Tony Blair, told The Sunday Post: “I will never understand why the Lib Dems pushed for it, and once the SNP moved, it was virtually impossible for Labour to hold out. The Tories were desperate to get to an election without resolving Brexit, and the opponents of Brexit played into their hands.”
Mr Campbell, who was an adviser to the People’s Vote campaign, said “we will never know” if Boris Johnson would have been forced to concede a second Brexit referendum if there had not been a General Election.
“But I felt at the time we were closer than ever to getting a second referendum, but that as soon as this sense of inevitability of an election gathered pace, it was all over,” he said.
But James Mitchell, professor of public policy at Edinburgh University, said securing a parliamentary majority in favour of a second referendum would have been “highly unlikely”.
He said: “I can’t see how Johnson could have been forced into a second referendum. He would have done everything to oppose this and so too would many others in the Labour Party. We are where we are largely because of Labour divisions.”
Professor Michael Keating, chair in Scottish politics at Aberdeen University, said Britain is closer to a no- deal Brexit than ever before.
He said: “Johnson got his deal not because he got a majority, but because he caved in to the Europeans over Northern Ireland. What is clear is that the mandate he got made it makes it much easier to deliver a no-deal Brexit.
“He couldn’t have got no deal out of the last parliament. No deal is made more likely by the election result because Johnson can now deliver it if he wants to.
“We’re looking closer to no deal than we’ve ever been in the past.”
Ia n Blackford said: “We ended up in a situation that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill was presented to parliament and there was a significant number of Labour MPS who voted for a second reading.
“That was a hugely significant moment because it indicated that, despite what the Labour whips were doing, there were Labour MPS who were willing to support the agreement that Boris Johnson had brought forward.
“In that sense there was no other alternative at that point but for people to take the responsibility and have a General Election.
“What we were looking for was for others to step up to the plate and do what we did, which was to spend the election campaign fighting for Britain staying in the EU.
“We delivered and it was the fact the other opposition parties couldn’t do so that has left us in the position
that we are in.”