Public affairs and communications management

"Last week’s media saw more speculation that the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives might fight the next general election with an electoral pact. This would see some seats only being contested by one of the two parties currently in government. Politics would return to a two party system with the Liberal Conservatives on one side of the House and Labour on the other.

The leadership of both parties strongly denied any such plans and local supporters of both parties seem equally revolted by the idea. This revulsion may change over the current parliament. As the coalition implements more of its programme, it will become harder and harder for coalition MPs to differentiate themselves from their coalition partners of a different party.

For public affairs professionals, an electoral pact between coalition MPs would fundamentally alter our work. During the last government, the Liberal Democrats were vital in ensuring an additional level of scrutiny on government and presenting a third point of view. This was no clearer than during the war in Iraq, when the Liberal Democrats were the only major party to oppose invasion. For public affairs professionals, working with smaller parties has been a very effective way of ensuring that a fuller range of issues are examined in parliament.

Losing a sizable third party to a coalition pact, diminishes an important opportunity for government scrutiny and will make it harder for those with more niche concerns to have their issues raised on the political agenda."