Lib Dems launch 'operation 1997' to smash the blue wall

Party wants Labour supporters to vote tactically in 53 seats

- DAVID MADDOX

A leaked document has revealed that the Lib Dems are set to aunch a massive "tactical voting" push to try to squeeze the Labour vote in more than 50 Tory seats.

Sir Ed Davey’s party is hoping to regain its place as the third party in the Commons from the Scottish National Party and will be targeting at least 53 Tory-held seats in the “blue wall” in the coming weeks.

The MRP superpoll overnight suggests that their aim is within reach predicting 51 Lib Dem gains if there is tactical voting. The initiative is called “Operation 1997” in an attempt to recreate the 1997 election campaign led by the late Lord Paddy Ashdown when the party won 46 seats as a result of tactical voting.

After a start to the campaign dominated by Sir Ed doing stunts, including falling off a paddleboard, the memo from Dave McCobb, the party’s director of field campaigns, suggests that they have “got off to a flying start”.

In the document addressed to Rhiannon Leamon, the leader’s chief of staff; Mike Dixon, the party chief executive; and Olly Grender, the director of communications; he claimed that “the feeling on the ground is that this is a once-in-a-generation election akin to 1997”. He went on: “We have now delivered a staggering 2 million leaflets since Rishi Sunak stood on the steps of Downing Street last week. On top of that, we have knocked on 100,000 doors in key election battlegrounds.”