Labour and Lib Dems are giving each other free run
Claims of electoral pact after parties’ candidates campaign unopposed for hundreds of target seats
HUNDREDS of Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates are running unopposed by the other party in dozens of target Conservative councils, The Daily Telegraph can disclose, amid allegations of an electoral pact.
The Tories accused the two parties of preparing a “stitch-up” in tomorrow’s elections in 39 council districts.
The Telegraph’s analysis of data compiled by Democracy Club found 486 Labour candidates are running without a Lib Dem challenger in these seats.
Meanwhile, 81 Lib Dem candidates are seeking election without opposition from Sir Keir Starmer’s party in wards across the country.
Exclusive polling for this newspaper yesterday suggested the Conservatives are on track to lose almost 550 seats in the local elections. They include councils with tight-run races such as Wandsworth, Harrow and Hartlepool, where Boris Johnson campaigned yesterday.
One senior Conservative campaigning in Harrow said he hadn’t seen a “single Liberal leaflet” at this election.
It comes after Sir Keir and Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, rejected the suggestion of an electoral pact, with Sir Ed saying: “There’s no pact now. There’s not going to be a pact in the future.”
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative Party chairman, told The Telegraph: “From London to Yorkshire, the evidence of the Labour and Lib Dem back room stitch-up is increasingly clear.
“While the Conservatives fight for every vote on a record of delivering good local services and keeping council tax low, Labour and the Lib Dems are running from their abysmal records at running local councils and resorting to secret deals.”
Lib Dem candidates are running unopposed by Labour in wards for three councils with no outright majority. Woking, Elmbridge, and Hart councils may realistically turn blue or yellow after tomorrow’s elections.
Meanwhile, Labour have no Liberal Democrat challengers in several wards in the North East and North West, in seats such as Hartlepool, Bury, West Lancashire and Rossendale.
A Lib Dem spokesman said: “In places like Haringey, Knowsley, St Helens and Rochdale, in Bradford, St Albans and Oxford the Conservatives have failed to stand for election in significant numbers. That is because... lifelong Conservatives will not support a party with a lying Prime Minister and tax-raising Chancellor.”
Some Conservatives have been pessimistic about the party’s chances, with one Tory campaign source noting: “If you look at polling over the weekend, it couldn’t be any worse really. We’re not even leading on immigration.
“We are in the midst of peacetime politics and Boris has had a shocker since Christmas.”
The source added that one London ward in a target borough for Labour was “tough last time” but “feels a damn sight harder now”.
Labour have 308 candidates in London who are running in wards without a Lib Dem challenger.
Key councils that Sir Keir’s party are
‘We are in the midst of peacetime politics and Boris has had a shocker since Christmas’
looking to take away from Conservative control, including Wandsworth and Barnet, are among them.
Labour-run Croydon council has been under severe scrutiny in recent years, with the Metropolitan Police looking into allegations of fraud which may have contributed to the council’s £1.5billion of debt.
Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East, told The Telegraph while campaigning: “I think it’s just the case that the Liberal Democrats have just been destroyed here.
“They lost their last councillor in 2018 and they don’t figure in the general elections. It’s very much a two horse race between us and Labour in Harrow.
“It’s very much a smattering of candidates, you can see that from the nominations ... I haven’t seen a single Liberal leaflet at this election.”
He added that Conservatives are “quietly confident” they can flip Harrow council.
The Labour party was approached for comment.