20th century The term progressive alliance has been used to describe the
Gladstone–MacDonald pact, the 1903 agreement between the
Liberal Party and the
Labour Representation Committee (forerunner to the
Labour Party) to stand aside for each other in constituencies. In the 1930s, the movement for a
Popular Front called for a broad
anti-fascist alliance involving Labour, the Liberals, the
Communists and anti-fascist Conservatives. This policy was strongly supported by the Communist Party, whilst supporters of the Popular Front such as
Stafford Cripps achieved a significant degree of influence within the Labour Party at this time, particularly after the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War in 1936; however, the
Labour Party Conference voted against a Popular Front policy on several occasions.
Clement Attlee's
post-war "progressive alliance" in the Labour Party saw the introduction of the
National Health Service,
comprehensive education and the
welfare state. During the 1980s, calls for an alliance of parties opposed to the policies of
Margaret Thatcher grew during a period where the Thatcher government inflicted a number of defeats on the labour movement. One of the key figures arguing for such an alliance was the historian
Eric Hobsbawm, whose article "The Forward March of Labour Halted" suggested that the working class was not powerful enough to secure the implementation of socialist policies and that cross-class alliances were essential for progressive politics. These sentiments were particularly widespread in the
Eurocommunist wing of the Communist Party, and the party's theoretical journal
Marxism Today, although they were also widely influential within the
soft left of the Labour Party.
21st century The idea of a progressive alliance was mooted in the run-up to the
2015 general election. For example, the phrase was used by
Scottish National Party leader
Nicola Sturgeon,
Green Party leader
Natalie Bennett, and
Plaid Cymru leader
Leanne Wood. The idea was also proposed In 2019, such tactical voting to prevent a hard Brexit was advocated by the
Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, in the run-up to
that year's General Election. Each party announced that it had agreed to stand down Parliamentary candidates for each other, in seats where one of them had a realistic prospect of winning, if votes were not split between them. The idea has been taken up by a number of independent organisations. Several grassroots organisations, There are no mutually agreed policy aims between the various organisations, but these would likely include
electoral reform to change the
voting system (e.g.
proportional representation). The name itself is somewhat unclear as there is no agreed definition of progressivism in
British politics. There are dissenting views with the Green and Liberal Democrat parties agreeing to stand down candidates in neighbouring constituencies in
quid pro quo deals. For example, in
South West Surrey in 2017, the
National Health Action Party's
Louise Irvine was selected by a public meeting run by the local Compass group to run as a progressive alliance candidate. In her campaign for the
2020 Liberal Democrat leadership election, MP
Wera Hobhouse advocated a progressive alliance with the Greens and Labour, arguing that the Lib Dems "need to abandon equidistance between the Conservative and Labour Parties". Following the
2021 local elections, Dr Kevin Hickson (
University of Liverpool) and Dr Jasper Miles (
Queen Mary University London) expressed doubt about the chances of a progressive alliance. In August 2021, Labour Party leader
Keir Starmer ruled out working with the
Scottish National Party or any progressive movement on an electoral pact. In October 2025 ahead of the 2026
Scottish Parliament and
Welsh Senedd elections,
SNP leader John Swinney and
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth announced that they had held talks in order to develop a "progressive alliance". The news came in the aftermath of the Plaid victory in the
2025 Caerphilly by-election. The two parties had previously formed a
Westminster parliamentary group in the
2001-2005 Parliament, becoming the third largest opposition party with 9 seats (5 SNP, 4 Plaid Cymru) after the Conservatives with 166 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 52. ==See also==