Jo Swinson calls for more pro-Remain electoral pacts after Brecon by-election victory Liberal Democrat leader says national interest should go ahead of party

Jo Swinson has said the Liberal Democrats will enter more electoral pacts with other pro-European Union parties after the success in Brecon and Radnorshire.

The newly elected leader of the Lib Dems hailed her party’s performance in the Welsh by-election, which whittled Boris Johnson’s majority to just a single vote.

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And Ms Swinson vowed to strike further agreements with parties opposed to Brexit in a bid to boost the number of Europhile MPs in the Commons.

The Lib Dems brokered a deal with Plaid Cymru and the Green Party to only stand their candidate Jane Dodds against the Conservatives to give them the best chance of securing victory.

Clear message

Ms Swinson said the result sent a “really clear message that the country doesn’t have to settle for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, there is another positive alternative that is winning again and on the up and that is the Liberal Democrats”.

“I do think that working across party lines is important when there is so much at stake for the future of our country and I will continue to do that,” she told BBC Radio 4.

“I’ve exchanged messages this morning with the Green and Plaid leaderships and I think there will be more co-operation in future elections.”

The Lib Dem leader added the result showed to the Prime Minister that he has “no mandate to crash us out of the EU”.

“We now have one more MP who will vote against Brexit in Parliament,” she said.

Ms Swinson’s party won 13,826 votes with the Tories taking 12,401, overturning the Conservatives; previous majority of more than 8,000 that it achieved in 2017.

Had it not agreed an electoral pact with the two other parties it is unlikely the Lib Dems would have been able to win back the seat it lost in 2015.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said: “The victory of Remain cross-party co-operation and Jane Dodds in Brecon and Radnorshire last night will give those in Downing Street plotting a snap general election pause for thought, because it shows they cannot take the public for granted.”

Dirty backroom deal

But while Ms Swinson is eager to see more deals between pro-Remain parties, she refused to commit to an agreement that would see the Lib Dems not standing its own candidates in areas with a strong Green Party presence.

“We are very open to these conversations,” she said. But when pressed on if it would happen, she replied: “A lot of it does get driven by local circumstances.”

Tory Party chair James Cleverly branded the electoral pact as a “dirty backroom deal”, adding that the Lib Dems “threw the kitchen sink” at the by-election.

But Ms Swinson denied the party had “played” the system.

“I want to have a different voting system but we’re working within the system that we have,” she said.