'We're Not Striking Deals With The Lib Dems Or SNP,' Labour MP Says

David Lammy: “We want to win outright and we will be fighting for every single vote in every single constituency."
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Sturgeon, Starmer and Davey
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A Labour MP has insisted they will not strike deals with the Lib Dems or SNP to take down Boris Johnson.

David Lammy said Labour fights for “every single seat” and that they want to win the next election “outright”.

It comes after tactical voting saw Johnson’s party wiped out in two crunch by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield.

Asked if Labour was ready for an alliance with the SNP, the shadow foreign secretary said they would not be striking any deals.

Sky News host Trevor Phillips told him Labour was “never going to go back to where Labour was in Scotland”.

But Lammy hit back: “That is quite a categorical statement and I’ve got to say that’s a matter for the electorate.”

Pressed on the SNP’s current popularity, Lammy said: “I’m not going to prejudge the outcome of an election that’s likely in two years’ time.

“Let’s see where we get to but on that result in Wakefield, and indeed in Tiverton, we would be forming the next government with a comfortable majority. That’s what that result tells us.”

He added: “We’ve absolutely clear there is no, we’re not striking deals with the SNP or the Liberal Democrats, we want to win outright, and we will be fighting for every single vote in every single constituency, right across the country.”

However, tactical voting enabled Labour and the Lib Dems to take seats from Johnson’s party last week. 

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David Lammy on Sky News
Sky News

Labour’s win in Wakefield by around 5,000 votes, a 12 per cent swing from the Tories, saw the Lib Dem candidate lose his deposit with only 1.85 per cent of the vote. 

Similarly, the Lib Dems’ extraordinary triumph in Tiverton and Honiton, which saw a swing of 30,000, saw the Labour candidate lose her deposit with just over 3 per cent of the vote.

Experts argue that if the two parties work together to divvy up seats they could deprive Johnson of a majority at the next election.

However, the major opposition parties have repeatedly denied there is any formal agreement between them to defeat the Tories by running limited or non-existent campaigns in each others’ target seats.