Britain is broken, but we can fix many of our issues by rejoining the EU and introducing Proportional Representation.
Volt UK is standing in our first Westminster election in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.
Our candidate, Ewan Hoyle, explains why we are standing: “Where UKIP became a threat to the Conservative party by splitting their right-wing vote, Volt UK intend to become a threat to the Labour Party’s aspirations for a Commons majority. We will present an unequivocally pro-rejoin, and pro-proportional representation position and will aim to split the Labour vote in Labour’s 301st to 350th target seats for the next election. Mainstream progressive parties trying to enter national politics will always be attacked for splitting the progressive vote. We will only seek to take votes from Labour in places where it is safe to do so, starting with the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. If Labour fail to win in the seats we contest, our modelling predicts our action will increase the likelihood of a hung parliament, while not significantly increasing the likelihood of the Conservatives staying in power.
Labour are making a serious error of judgement in rejecting any prospect of rejoining the single market, customs union and the EU. In order to improve public services, they need the increased government income that a growing economy will bring. The simplest, and most effective option available for growing the British economy is to rejoin the single market, customs union, and the EU. If Labour fail to improve public services after the next election, and if they refuse to reform our electoral system to prevent further illegitimate Conservative majorities, then there is the serious prospect of the Conservatives bouncing straight back into power. We will not sit by and allow this scenario to play out, without fighting as hard as we can to provoke a change of heart in the Labour leadership on these two vital issues.”
We want to work with the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats in order to advance the causes of rejoining the EU and electoral reform. Hoyle says: “We have suffered decades of Conservative majority rule when the majority of the country voted for progressive parties. Even Margaret Thatcher was an illegitimate right wing Prime Minister with a minority share of the vote throughout her time in power. Progressive parties have to stop splitting the progressive vote where it is unsafe to do so. I implore the Greens and Liberal Democrats not to stand in at least the last 50 Labour targets that would take Labour to 300 seats, and to endorse the Labour candidates in these seats. If the Greens and Liberal Democrats additionally fought especially hard in Labour’s 301st to 350th targets (and beyond), with a specific focus on electoral reform, then not only will Conservative defeat be assured, but a hung parliament will become much more likely too. Many progressive commentators are coming round to the idea that a hung parliament will be the best outcome of the next election for the future of our country. Volt UK are the only party with a plan to deliver that hung parliament.”
Britain’s current problems have all been caused or exacerbated by Brexit and Britain’s awful First Past The Post voting system. The path to our country’s solutions lies in electoral reform and returning to the EU. That’s why these two issues are the focus of our campaign.
Our candidate, Ewan Hoyle, understands all too well the desire for constitutional change in Scotland. With the paths to Scottish Independence increasingly unclear however, progressive Scots could respond enthusiastically to safer, and more realistic, alternatives. “In Scotland, the Labour party have a fantastic opportunity to win back progressive voters from an SNP in crisis. If they promised electoral reform at Westminster, progressive Scots could anticipate a future free of illegitimate Conservative majorities. Electoral history clearly shows that England is not a Conservative country but is rather a progressive country with a dreadful electoral system which consistently places power in the hands of the party that can unite the right. If Labour can deliver the electoral reform which allows the British progressive majority to govern most of the time, then the desire of progressive Scots to live in a separate Scottish state would inevitably diminish. Scotland also clearly did not want to leave the EU, and very much wishes to rejoin. For the Labour leadership to ignore the wishes of progressive Scots, in the hope of wooing voters in the Brexit-voting “red wall”, is a genuinely bewildering misjudgement.”
A vote for Ewan Hoyle, and for Volt UK, in Rutherglen and Hamilton West is the best way to express clear disgust at the course that the Labour party has chosen.
Volt UK are part of the pan-European, anti-populist movement, Volt Europa. Volt Europa were founded in 2017 as a direct response to Brexit and to rising populism in the world. Volt UK will always seek cross-party and cross-border co-operation in order to tackle the great problems of our time.
