Wealden PPC Chris Bowers welcomes the 'grown-up politics' of Unite to Remain

Wealden Lib Dems welcomed the announcement of the Unite to Remain agreement and the call for tactical voting nationally. The need for a cooperative united remainer stance is now even more critical following the announcement by Brexit Party's Nigel Farage that they will not, after all, be contesting over 300 seats that Johnson's Pro-Leave Tories already hold (thereby doing exactly what US President Trump had suggested they do during a recent phone-in radio show). Little wonder the Brexit and Conservative parties are now being dubbed the "Brexitory" party!

Wealden's Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Chris Bowers welcomed the Unite to Remain agreement which involves candidates from the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru standing aside in 60 constituencies in order to avoid splitting the Progressive Remain vote and to unite behind the one Pro-Remain candidate in each constituency who stands the best chance of winning.

Chris described the announcement as "a shot in the arm for grown-up politics" and "an encouraging sign that there are people in UK politics willing to put the welfare of the country and its people ahead of their local party".

The arrangement involves two of the three candidates in 60 named seats standing aside to enhance the chances of a pro-Remain candidate beating a pro-Brexit candidate.

Although Wealden is not one of the 60 seats, Chris Bowers, who has a long track record as a passionate environmentalist, said: "We accept and respect that the Green Party will not be standing aside in Wealden, but we urge voters tempted to vote Green this time to put their weight behind the party most likely to beat the Conservatives, which in Wealden is clearly the Lib Dems." This is backed up by extensive data analysis by the leading cross-party tactical voting sites including Best For Britain's getvoting.org and the People's Vote Campaign's tactical-vote.uk where voters can look up their postcode to receive unbiased pro-Remain advice.

"We all thank the Green Party and Plaid Cymru for their brave decision," said Chris. "Brexit is a national crisis. This groundbreaking agreement, facilitated by the Unite to Remain campaign group, will help to secure more Remain-supporting MPs in the next Parliament. And the more LibDems that are elected, the higher the chances are of us finally bringing about long overdue and much needed electoral reform - which would finally mean getting a fairer voting system in Britain, in which tactical voting would no longer be needed." https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/proportional-representation

Despite a sizeable majority, and long being considered a "safe blue seat", the Conservatives are by no means home and dry in Wealden, which has an unpopular and oft-absent MP and an electorate which, since 2018, has switched to being more than 50% in favour of Remain according to a Best For Britain report.

Chris says, "We call on all Remainers - whether natural Labour, Conservative, Green or Independent voters - to lend their support to the Lib Dems on December 12th. This will ensure that the people of Wealden get a strong, local voice in Parliament, to stop Brexit and fight for a brighter future for Britain. The Liberal Democrats are the one party which can deliver that."