A progressive alliance in the UK is a cross-party political alliance supporting " progressive politics", generally in opposition to

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

parties, chiefly the Conservative Party.

History

20th century

The term progressive alliance has been used to describe the Gladstone–MacDonald pact, the 1903 agreement between the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

and the Labour Representation Committee (forerunner to the Labour Party) to stand aside for each other in constituencies. In the 1930s, the movement for a Popular Front called for a broad

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

alliance involving Labour, the Liberals, the

Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

and anti-fascist Conservatives. This policy was strongly supported by the Communist Party, whilst supporters of the Popular Front such as

Stafford Cripps Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, Cripps first entered Parliament at a 1931 Bristol East by-election ...

achieved a significant degree of influence within the Labour Party at this time, particularly after the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

in 1936; however, the

Labour Party Conference The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conferen ...

voted against a Popular Front policy on several occasions.

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

"progressive alliance" in the Labour Party saw the introduction of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

comprehensive education Comprehensive may refer to: * Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. *Comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, th ...

and the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

. During the 1980s, calls for an alliance of parties opposed to the policies of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

grew during a period where the Thatcher government inflicted a number of defeats on the labour movement. One of the key figures arguing for such an alliance was the historian

Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...

, whose article "The Forward March of Labour Halted" suggested that the working class was not powerful enough to secure the implementation of socialist policies and that cross-class alliances were essential for progressive politics. These sentiments were particularly widespread in the Eurocommunist wing of the Communist Party, and the party's theoretical journal '' Marxism Today'', although they were also widely influential within the

soft left The soft left, also known as the open left, inside left and historically as the Tribunite left, is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left, represented by former leader Michae ...

of the Labour Party. Green Party politician and academic

Rupert Read Rupert Read (born 1966) is an environmental philosopher, public intellectual, and the founder and current director of the Climate Majority Project. He is the author of several books on Wittgenstein, philosophy, and/or climate change, most recen ...

has described the tactics of Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the 1997 general election, when they focused on attacking the Conservatives rather than each other, as a precedent for a progressive alliance.

21st century

The idea of a progressive alliance was mooted in the run-up to the 2015 general election. For example, the phrase was used by

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

leader

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) sin ...

, Green Party leader

Natalie Bennett Natalie Louise Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (born 10 February 1966), is an Australian-British politician and journalist who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2012 to 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in ...

, and

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

leader Leanne Wood. The idea was also proposed in the run-up to the 2017 general election and after the

2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

, in which the vote to leave the EU ("

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

") was won by a small majority. The concept of building cross-party alliances, with the asserted aim of working together to ensure the best possible future for the people and country, was debated at a public meeting entitled "Post-Brexit Alliance Building" held on 5 July 2016, hosted by the

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

. The idea became linked to opposition to a "hard" Brexit. In 2019, such tactical voting to prevent a hard Brexit was advocated by the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, in the run-up to that year's General Election. Each party announced that it had agreed to stand down Parliamentary candidates for each other, in seats where one of them had a realistic prospect of winning, if votes were not split between them. The idea has been taken up by a number of independent organisations. The concept has not been adopted as official policy by any political party, but the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...

have pushed for a coordinated top-down and bottom-up approach to the idea.

Caroline Lucas Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parli ...

, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, argued for multiple local alliances for the best party to oppose the Conservatives and with a focus on bringing in

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems that alters how public desires, usually expressed by cast votes, produce election results. Description Reforms can include changes to: * Voting systems, such as adoption of proportional represen ...

. Several grassroots organisations,

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

groups and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

accounts have sprung up with similar names and aims, with

tactical voting Strategic or tactical voting is voting in consideration of possible ballots cast by other voters in order to maximize one's satisfaction with the election's results. Gibbard's theorem shows that no voting system has a single "always-best" stra ...

being encouraged. Compass has been reported as coordinating a campaign group called Progressive Alliance. There are no mutually agreed policy aims between the various organisations, but these would likely include

to change the

voting system An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...

(e.g.

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

). The name itself is somewhat unclear as there is no agreed definition of progressivism in

British politics The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which, by legislation and Convention (norm), convention, operates as a Unitary state, unitary parliamentary democracy. A Hereditary monarchy, hereditary Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch, ...

. There are dissenting views on the benefits of such an alliance, and debate as to whether it could make a difference to the electoral outcome. Local campaigns towards standing a single progressive candidate exist in a number of regions, with the Green and Liberal Democrat parties agreeing to stand down candidates in neighbouring constituencies in

quid pro quo ''Quid pro quo'' (Latin: "something for something") is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: " ...

deals. For example, in South West Surrey in 2017, the National Health Action Party's Louise Irvine was selected by a public meeting run by the local Compass group to run as a progressive alliance candidate. In her campaign for the 2020 Liberal Democrat leadership election, MP

Wera Hobhouse Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (' von Reden, 8 February 1960) is a British-German Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament (UK), Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (UK Parliament constituency), Bath sinc ...

advocated a progressive alliance with the Greens and Labour, arguing that the Lib Dems "need to abandon equidistance between the Conservative and Labour Parties". Following the 2021 local elections, Dr Kevin Hickson (

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

) and Dr Jasper Miles ( Queen Mary University London) expressed doubt about the chances of a progressive alliance. In August 2021, Labour Party leader

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...

ruled out working with the

or any progressive movement on an electoral pact.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news, last1=Barnes, first1=Peter, title=General election 2017: Deals, pacts and alliances, url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39748035, accessdate=28 April 2017, publisher=BBC News, date=28 April 2017 {{cite news, last1=Bulman, first1=May, title=Labour facing revolt as activists refuse to back candidates in bid to fight Theresa May’s plans for hard Brexit, url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-progressive-alliance-general-election-general-election-liberal-democrats-green-party-jeremy-a7709426.html, accessdate=30 April 2017, publisher=The Independent, date=30 April 2017 {{cite news, last1=Asthana, first1=Anushka, last2=Elgot, first2=Jessica, title=Labour figures call for candidates to step aside for Greens in two seats, url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/30/labour-figures-call-for-candidates-to-step-aside-for-greens-in-two-seats?CMP=twt_gu, accessdate=30 April 2017, publisher=The Guardian, date=30 April 2017 {{cite book, editor1-last=Nandy, editor1-first=Lisa, editor2-last=Lucas, editor2-first=Caroline, editor3-last=Bowers, editor3-first=Chris, title=The Alternative: Towards a New Progressive Politics, date=25 August 2016, isbn=9781785900495, pages=368, url=https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/the-alternative {{cite web, last1=Bourke, first1=India, title=A budding progressive alliance wants to take back the Brexit heartlands, url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/07/budding-progressive-alliance-wants-take-back-brexit-heartlands, website=New Statesman, date=7 July 2016, accessdate=28 April 2017 {{cite news, last1=Monbiot, first1=George, title=Labour can still survive, but only if it abandons hope of governing alone, url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/05/labour-survive-governing-alone-political-alliance-unity-british-left-power, publisher=The Guardian, date=5 July 2016, accessdate=28 April 2017 {{cite web, title=Post-Brexit Alliance Building, url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL7qew6ZC5kQFtqA6Xhjzh3lGHVz00pcDt&v=PMHuysv5a4E, website=YouTube, publisher=Compass, accessdate=27 April 2017 {{cite web, title=Progressive Alliance, url=http://www.progressivealliance.org.uk, publisher=Compass, accessdate=30 April 2017 {{cite web, title=Progressive Alliance, url=https://prog-allies.github.io/progressive-alliance/, accessdate=30 April 2017 {{cite web, title=Green Party calls for progressive electoral alliance talks, url=https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2016/06/29/green-party-calls-for-progressive-electoral-alliance-talks/, website=Green Party, accessdate=27 April 2017 {{cite web, title=More United, url=http://www.moreunited.uk/, accessdate=30 April 2017, language=en {{cite web, title=The Progressive Alliance, url=https://www.facebook.com/theprogressivealliance/, website=www.facebook.com, accessdate=30 April 2017 {{cite web, title=People for a Progressive Alliance, url=https://www.facebook.com/PeopleforaProgressiveAlliance/, website=www.facebook.com, accessdate=30 April 2017, language=en {{cite web, title=The Progressive Alliance, url=https://twitter.com/TheProgAlliance, website=www.twitter.com, accessdate=30 April 2017 {{cite web, title=How To Vote To Stop The Tories, url=https://www.tactical2017.com, website=Unite Against the Tories, accessdate=30 April 2017 {{cite news, title=Jeremy Corbyn rejects 'progressive alliance' with SNP, url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39648506, accessdate=28 April 2017, publisher=BBC News, date=19 April 2017 {{cite news, last1=Rayner, first1=Gordon, last2=Hope, first2=Christopher, title=Theresa May warns of 'coalition of chaos' if Nicola Sturgeon forms progressive alliance with Labour and Lib Dems, url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/nicola-sturgeon-says-snp-will-seek-progressive-alliance-labour/, accessdate=28 April 2017, publisher=The Telegraph, date=19 April 2017 {{cite web, title=A Progressive Alliance: The Alternative?, url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/a-progressive-alliance-the-alternative, website=Birkbeck, University of London, accessdate=28 April 2017 {{cite news, last1=Williams, first1=Martin, title=FactCheck Q&A: could tactical voting lead to a progressive majority?, url=https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-could-tactical-voting-lead-to-a-progressive-majority, publisher=Channel 4, date=24 April 2017, accessdate=28 April 2017 {{cite web, last1=Quinn, first1=Tom, title=Why a progressive alliance just doesn’t work in British politics, url=https://reaction.life/progressive-alliance-just-doesnt-work-british-politics/, website=Reaction, accessdate=28 April 2017, date=27 April 2017 Political movements in the United Kingdom Political party alliances in the United Kingdom

History

20th century

21st century

See also

References