Major, Blair urge tactical voting
Axe Labour if independent or Lib-dem can win
LONDON • Sir John Major and Tony Blair urged the public Friday not to vote for the parties they once led.
The two former prime ministers made an unprecedented intervention in support of tactical voting to block a Tory majority in next week’s election.
Sir John has told voters not to follow “tribal loyalty” and endorsed three independent candidates, all former Tories now running against the party.
The former Conservative leader was speaking by video message at a rally in London alongside Blair, under the banner “Stop The Brexit Landslide.”
Blair suggested that he supported voting tactically to stop the Conservatives — even if it meant voting for candidates other than Labour.
He spoke at the rally organized by Vote for a Final Say, a campaign group spending thousands of dollars on targeted advertising in 25 key marginal seats to stop a Tory majority.
Their campaign includes backing Lib- Dem Monica Harding against Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary. Labour’s candidate for is Peter Ashurst.
Blair said: “This is the final chance for a final say. It’s not one general election but 650 individual ones.
“There are great Labour candidates who deserve wholehearted support. I am voting Labour. But let me put it this way. If you look, constituency by constituency, you will know the best candidates to back. Back them.”
Blair said the Tory Party “does not deserve to govern unchecked and the country would not be wise to let them.” He praised David Gauke, the former justice secretary, who is standing as an independent.
Harding said at the rally: “I am amazed by how many Conservative and Labour members have come across to support this cause. They are putting the old tribal politics aside.”
Meanwhile, Sir John said the election was the “final chance” to change the course of Brexit and endorsed Gauke, Dominic Grieve and Anne Milton, all former ministers who lost the Tory party whip after rebelling over Brexit.
Responding to Sir John’s comments, Boris Johnson said: “I think it’s very sad and I think that he is wrong, and I think that he represents a view that is outdated, alas, greatly that I respect him and his record, and I think that what we need to do now is honour the will of the people and get Brexit done.”
Sir John said: “Tribal loyalty has its place. But sometimes you need to vote with your head and your heart. For your country and your future. This is such a time.”
Grieve, Gauke and Milton are all calling for a second referendum and standing against Conservative candidates who have pledged to back Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Sir John described the three as “principled, decent human beings.”
“Let me make one thing absolutely clear: none of them has left the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party has left them,” he explained.
“Without such talent on its benches, Parliament will be the poorer, which is why — if I were resident in any one of their constituencies — they would have my vote.”
Describing Brexit as “the worst foreign policy decision in my lifetime,” he said: “Vote for the candidate who you believe will best represent your own views and aspirations in Parliament.”
His comments came after Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister, said Tory voters should back the Liberal Democrats or independent candidates in the election.
Lord Heseltine, who backs another EU referendum, said Johnson’s Brexit policy would be “utterly disastrous.” He also urged voters to back Grieve, Milton and Gauke.
Gauke is standing as a candidate in South West Hertfordshire. Grieve, the former attorney general, is standing in Beaconsfield, while Milton is standing as an independent in Guildford.
Gauke said Johnson’s Brexit plan is “fundamentally dishonest” adding: “We’ll be plunged into a negotiation that looks doomed to see us leave on WTO terms at the end of next year and yet more years of uncertainty. The country is polarized. It is either a hard Brexit or remain.
“Neither option has a mandate.”
In a message to young people, Sir John said: “When the nation voted on Brexit they did so on a diet of fiction and undeliverable promises.
“As the facts become known, it is extraordinary that a new vote is denied: extraordinary, and undemocratic. Your vote is absolutely crucial — for you have the longest lease on our country’s future, and our place in the wider world... Don’t wake up on Dec. 13 and regret not making a choice.”
SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO VOTE WITH YOUR HEAD.