SNP’s Stewart Hosie says opposition must unite and that Corbyn must get first chance to be PM
www.theguardian.com
I can understand the reluctance of Jo Swinton, the leader of the Lib Dems, to support the idea, since almost all the potential Lib Dem gains in any forthcoming General Election (which are likely to be substantial) will be seats currently held by Conservatives in London and the South and West of England, as Conservative supporters who either support Remain or (probably a larger subset) are horrified at Johnson's misconduct as Prime Minister either vote Lib Dem or abstain.
So she is going to want to do all she can to reassure Conservative supporters they can safely vote Lib Dem and to neutralise the damaging allegation -- deployed very effectively in 2015 and 2017 -- that a vote for the Lib Dems is effectively a vote to give the Labour leader the keys to Downing Street.
I've seen the idea floated that Corbyn might voluntarily decline the offer and, instead, step aside, while remaining as Leader of the Labour Party and support another, more widely acceptable, Labour politician --
Dame Margaret Beckett has been suggested -- as PM of a Government of National Unity in order to secure an extension, followed soon after by a General Election in which Corbyn would lead the party and hope to become PM after a Labour victory.
Time will tell, of course, but I think that's the background to Swinton's apparent misgivings about the idea, just as it probably explains why she was so welcoming to the Tory defector Dr Phillip Lee recently, despite
the outrage this caused among LGBPT+ Lib Dem activists and supporters, several of whom quit the party in protest.
So I wouldn't rule out a Labour-led GNU just yet, or even one led by someone like Ken Clarke.
nairobinews.nation.co.ke
