With a general election possibly only weeks away, Zac Goldsmith is one of 100 MPs whose constituencies will be targeted by People’s Vote campaigners

On a hot Friday afternoon in Richmond upon Thames not everyone is keen to talk about Brexit. “I’d rather not, if you don’t mind,” says a middle-aged woman, making clear she would much prefer to carry on reading her novel in peace in the park.

A few benches away a young man enjoying his lunch break raises his hand. “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t want to go there,” he says.

But Brexit divides people in all ways, and others in this well-to-do part of west London, which returned a pro-Brexit Tory MP, Zac Goldsmith, at the last general election despite being predominantly a Remain area, are more than willing to engage.

It is the day after the Brecon and Radnorshire byelection that saw the Liberal Democrats oust the sitting Tory MP Chris Davies, reducing Boris Johnson’s Commons majority to just one in the process. The other Remain parties, including the Greens and Plaid Cymru, agreed not to stand candidates and helped the Lib Dems across the line in the Welsh seat.

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In Richmond, which Goldsmith regained from the Lib Dems in 2017 by just 45 votes, the Welsh result was registered by local pro-EU voters as a ray of hope – the possible start of a fightback in which Remain parties could begin to work together to defeat Brexit-supporting MPs. So, with a general election possible as early as next month, are the forces of Remain uniting at last?

Emerging from a library, Michael Bull, a retired school teacher and a Labour voter in the past, hopes they are. He says alliances must be formed in areas like Richmond to ensure the pro-EU vote does not split.

“We need more of that kind of thing in places like this,” he says. “The first-past-post system is broken. If Labour had stood down here in 2017 the Lib Dems would have won again last time. Brexit is such an important issue, we have to break the mould.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Richmond in west London, which was won by the Zac Goldsmith for the Conservatives in 2017 with a tiny margin of 45 votes over the Lib Dems. Photograph: Stockinasia/Alamy Stock Photo

Liam Sutton, a data analyst, passes by and agrees. He voted Remain in 2016, has heard the news from Brecon overnight, and now wants to see the experiment repeated in other areas. “What happened in Brecon was a good thing,” he says. “I would like to see other constituencies follow suit. We need these alliances.”

The former Tory MP Heidi Allen, who recently formed Unite to Remain, an organisation in favour of Remain alliances across the UK, writes today in the Observer that it is time for Remain politicians to come together and temporarily relegate party loyalties: “Millions of people are looking to their MPs to step up, put traditional allegiances aside and work together in the national interest,” she writes. “By not fielding candidates in the Brecon byelection, the other Remain parties - principally the Greens, Plaid Cymru, the Independent Group for Change and Renew – have demonstrated it is indeed possible. Halle-bloody-lujah.”

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But while local agreements like that in Brecon Radnorshire will be repeated, they are likely to be few and informal. Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour does not want to call itself a Remain party and anyway would not be keen to stand down candidates in a way that would undermine its position as a national party.

The new Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said after her party’s byelection triumph that she would look at more alliances in other areas, but has also made clear she will not work with Labour. The Lib Dems could well step aside in Brighton Pavilion, the seat held by the sole Green MP Caroline Lucas, and in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, held by Plaid’s Liz Saville-Roberts.

But with the party now believing it is on the up again, the Lib Dems will want to fight wherever it believes it can be the main anti-Brexit force. In Scotland the pro-Remain SNP is the dominant party, anyway. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that whether local alliances are formed or not, voters with strong views on Brexit will be encouraged to vote tactically at any early general election – more so than ever before. In other words, while the parties may be unwilling to commit, the voters may take matters into their own hands.

On Sunday the People’s Vote campaign reveals plans to target about 100 marginal seats across the country in which it will tell Remain voters to back pro-referendum MPs, from whatever party, who are under threat from pro-Brexit Tories or Brexit party candidates – and candidates in favour of a second public vote who could realistically replace a pro-Brexit MP.

As it prepares its “PV 100” campaign, an official People’s Vote briefing note says that “tactical voting will be a bigger factor than in any previous election in the UK.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zac Goldsmith and Boris Johnson, pictured in 2016. Photograph: Jeremy Selwyn/ANL/Rex/Shutterstock

The campaign is to focus on marginal seats where it believes tactical voting could make the difference, setting up local campaign groups and digital targeting to identify key voters.

People who back another referendum will be encouraged where necessary to vote for a party they would never normally back.

“In some cases we will be asking Labour supporters to vote for other parties such as the Liberal Democrats. In many others we will be asking supporters of the Liberal Democrats, the Greens or others to vote Labour,” the documents say.

“This is based on nothing more than the hard-headed acknowledgement of which party is best placed to beat an opponent of the People’s Vote. In marginal seats where the Labour candidate does not support a people’s vote on any Brexit outcome, we will not give them our backing.”

Back in Richmond, Monica Saunders, a Green councillor, says her local party is debating whether it should stand candidates against the Lib Dems at a general election, or withdraw and agree a Remain alliance.

Whether it does or does not, she thinks Remain supporters will work together in non-partisan ways to try to oust Goldsmith. “Whatever happens here, you can be sure there will certainly be a lot of tactical voting,” she says.