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The time may have come for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party to merge

The two parties stood down in each other’s favour in many seats in England and Wales at the last election, says John Rentoul. Could they go further?

Tuesday 04 August 2020 22:16 BST
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Ed Davey is the favourite to win the Lib Dem leadership
Ed Davey is the favourite to win the Lib Dem leadership

This striking suggestion was made by writer Nick Tyrone, who wants Layla Moran to win the Liberal Democrat leadership because he thinks it would destroy the party. For that reason, many readers might have dismissed the idea of a merger of the Lib Dems and Greens out of hand, but there is something to it.

Tyrone is an Orange-Book Lib Dem, that is, on the free-market, Nick Cleggish side of the party. That ought to mean he supports Ed Davey in the titanic political struggle that is not exactly shaking the country to its foundations until the ballot closes on 26 August.

But he is also a waspish writer and natural troublemaker, hence his article in The Spectator, in which he admits, “I agree with Ed on a lot more than I do Layla,” but goes on: “Ed isn’t good enough to make the Lib Dems nationally relevant again. I’m sorry to say this, but it’s true.”

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