Labour and Lib Dems to fight 'Tories first' in pact to take Conservative seats at next election

Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party is going to work alongside the Liberal Democrats to target Conservative seats in the next General Election.

The Labour party will concentrate on forming a “non-aggression pact” with the Liberal Democrats to streamline "limited resources", according to senior Labour sources.

Both parties suggest that working together will play to their electoral mathematical advantage, as Labour will focus less on capturing 30 Liberal Democrat target seats such as Ceredigion and Brecon and Radnorshire.

Keir Starmer’s allies spoke to the Financial Times about running a "minimal campaign."

“If both parties put resources into where they are most likely to win, you end up with more Labour seats and more Lib Dem seats."

Looking forward to discuss a potential hung parliament, they told the newspaper: “We can’t be in a position like we were in 2010 when we barely knew each other.”

Labour and the Lib Dems have not yet agreed to a formal general election pact.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged his party to “ruthlessly focus” on Labour's target seats in the election.

Senior Labour sources said: “We will run everywhere and fight everywhere but we don’t have unlimited resources so it makes sense to concentrate those on where we have the most chance of winning a seat."

“If you look at where our target seats are, in England they are almost all Tory seats.”

In the next General Election, which is likely to be in 2024, the Liberal Democrats said they will target the Tory seats which were won in the 2019 election.