The Tories are terrified of a Labour-Lib Dem pact – and they’re right to be | Neal Lawson

Informal alliances between progressive parties help win seats. There's no shame in working together

Faced with the ongoing Partygate scandal, a porn-watching MP and a potential rout at Thursday's local elections, the Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has gone on the attack. A front-page Mail on Sunday splash accused Keir Starmer and Ed Davey of making a pact to give each other a free run in seats at this week's polls. The Tories fear a progressive alliance, and Labour and the Liberal Democrats seem to fear saying openly that they want one. What's going on here, and what could it mean for the next general election?

From Dowden's point of view, on one level this is straight distraction: make a loud noise and hope people look at your opponents, not you. But he is also on to something. In February the Financial Times ran a well briefed story that Starmer and Davey had an informal pact to avoid competing with each other in certain seats: they stand candidates, but make minimal effort in the campaign. It worked for the Liberal Democrats in the Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire byelections, and for Labour in Batley and Spen. Not spending money you don't have, in seats you can't win, makes obvious sense.

Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass