Labour and the Lib Dems? It’s complicated

The Liberal Democrats are gathering in Bournemouth for their annual conference. There will be the usual speeches, the slightly convoluted floor votes and – of course – the externally baffling, but internally adored spectacle of ‘glee club’. This annual tradition exemplifies the best and worst of both who the Lib Dems are (or at least how they see themselves) and the joys and absurdities of party conferences themselves.

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Not nearly as cool as LabourList karaoke, of course (this year’s event has already sold out, though there will be some tickets available on the door. Arrive early to avoid disappointment!), glee club does have something in common with it’s superior equivalent. It’s where activists let down their hair and come together to party. But it is also where they come to show the strength of their allegiance to their tribe. Where those who have ben coming for years can demonstrate they know all the words to the ‘song book’ – an evolving affair with parody songs that cover the issues, personalities and history of the party. And before any Labour members get too cocky about how weird this all is, ask yourselves how many times you have sung along to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ or sung ‘Ooh Jeremy Coryn’ to the tune of Seven Nation Army.

Despite what any Lib Dem will tell you until they are blue (orange?) in the face – tribalism is as strong an instinct in the Lib Dems as it is in any other party.

Lib Dems will tell you that they see themselves as less factional than other parties – with ‘Orange bookers’ rubbing along reasonably well with their party’s more social democrat wing. However, the party has the same fissures along social policy – or even just ‘vibes’ – lines as any other. As exemplified by the leadership contest between the winner Ed Davey and the more radical seeming Layla Moran.

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That Davey won quite handily has illuminated where the Lib Dems think their political space is and has driven how they have acted during this parliament. While the Lib Dems have attacked the government from the left on areas where they feel they have the space to do so – particularly on relations with Trump, not going far enough on relations with Europe and a National Care Service – it is striking that all of these speak to areas where Lib Dem and Labour members have common instincts.

The other reason Lib Dems believe themselves to be less tribal than other parties is the one things they all agree on – electoral reform. By backing a system more likely to result in coalition government, they believe this inoculates them from the ‘all or nothing’ tribalism that ‘first past the post’ drives. And to an extent this is true. What is doesn’t factor in is negative tribalism – an instinct I have found to be very strong in the Lib Dems of my acquaintance (of which I have many, some that I love very dearly). Lib Dems may talk about their willingness to work with other parties, but they are also frequently the most virulent of attackers of those parties they really don’t like. At times, this has very much included Labour.

Those who became politically engaged as a result of the Brexit referendum are often a bit baffled by the enmity between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, but both sides will tell you it’s justified.

Longstanding Labour members will tell you of their frustrations at being attacked from the left by the party throughout the 2000s only for the people who had done so to go into coalition with the Tories and play a major part in enacting a very right wing austerity agenda. That these cuts played a role in bringing about Brexit is an under-explored tension both within the Lib Dems and more widely. But it also plays a part in why social care is in as bad a state as it is – with the cuts to local government – those who deliver much of the social care – being some of the most harsh.

Even older members will talk of the split from Labour by the part-precursor to the modern Lib Dem party – the SDP and the staunchly held belief within Labour that this enabled the long, dark years of Thatcher’s rule.

Meanwhile, Lib Dems – already wounded by what happened to them in 2015 when their coalition partners ate their electoral lunch – looked on in horror at what they viewed as Labour’s nadir under Corbyn and his lukewarm campaigning for Remain.

Whatever the personal (and it can get very personal) beefs are between Labour and the Lib Dems, the truth is that the electorate has largely presented both parties with the opportunity to put these differences aside. There are very few parliamentary seats where the two parties compete directly these days. And a judicious use of resources at the next general election (from both sides) will probably keep it that way.

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In the meantime, the Lib Dems continue to see opportunities in the ongoing demise of the Tories with Politico reporting that they are already selecting candidates in seat currently held by Tories. Meanwhile much of Ed Davey’s pre-conference rhetoric is aimed squarely at Nigel Farage and Reform.

This is good framing for the Lib Dems – the most overtly pro-EU party. But it may also prove helpful to Labour who will seek to benefit from any ‘Stop Nigel’ movement at the next general election.

If voters can be persuaded to vote for the Party most likely to stop Reform where they live – and as long as Labour and the Lib Dems remain unlikely to compete with each other in all but a handful of seats – There does not need to be a formal pre-election pact – a complicated thing for two parties with such a complex relationship.

What happens after that is up to the final electoral maths.

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