A petition has been launched calling for the Liberal Democrats to stand down and back Labour candidate in Boris Johnson’s constituency and help unseat the Prime Minister.
The petition argues: “Boris Johnson can lose his seat if other parties club together. As voters who care passionately about getting a referendum, we ask the Lib Dems (and Greens) to put the national interest first. They should back Labour in Uxbridge as it is only 5,000 votes behind.”
And the Brexit-sceptic InFact campaign who have launched the petition promise: “If the Lib Dems support Labour in Uxbridge, we will immediately launch a petition asking Labour to back the Lib Dems in Esher & Walton so they can kick out Dominic Raab.“
Polling in Boris Johnson’s constituency is close enough to have caused reports that he had considered changing seats. The Prime Minister is clearly feeling rattled as he has refused to face his opponents in the democratic institution of local hustings.
Labour’s candidate, the working class Iranian immigrant Ali Milani could not be more different from Johnson. The 25-year-old has led a dynamic campaign and hopes to become the first candidate to ever unseat a sitting Prime Minister in a British general election.
Hugo Dixon, chair of InFacts told The London Economic, “last night’s big YouGov poll shows Boris Johnson on 51%, Labour on 38%, theLib Dems on 7% and the Greens on 3%. We are calling on the Lib Dems and the Greens to back off. That would electrify the campaign and take it up to within a whisker – Ali Milani on 48% to Johnson’s 51%. You’d get lots of activists coming in because this would be a chance to topple a king, and you would get a lot more young people voting if they believed they had a chance as there are a lot of young people in the constituency and they tend to hate Johnson.”
InFacts are a campaigning journalistic enterprise who say they are making a fact-based case for staying in the EU.
Hugh Dixon said he had contacted the Liberal Democrat party and Jo Swinson. He also added that he had spotted two Lib Dem donors among the signatures already.
“If the Lib Dems stand aside in Uxbridge we will immediately launch a campaign for Labour to stand aside in Esher where the Lib Dems could actually overtake Dominic Raab if Labour were not standing,” confirmed Mr Dixon.
We recently reported how the Green Party had stood aside in Chingford and Woodford Green to give Labour candidate Fazia Shaheen the best chance of toppling Tory bogeyman Iain Duncan Smith.
You can find a link to the petition at: InFacts.org.