For London Lib Dems, Rory Stewart is an unwelcome addition to the mayoral race
London, despite theoretically being a liberal, metropolitan, city, has never really been a happy hunting ground for the Liberal Democrats. Sure, the party has managed to build up some wards, even some councils, but they’ve always failed to make a major impact at City Hall level.
The Lib Dems hoped Brexit would change all that and, for a time, it looked like it might. The party topped the polls in the EU election and did very well in the local elections in the capital. In Siobhan Benita they picked an articulate, independent, business-minded Mayoral candidate with impeccable Remain credentials. She was working alongside long-established and hardworking London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon. Their strategy largely depended on Britain having not left the EU by the time voters go to the polls and the election being a vote on whether or not London rejected Brexit. A lot of ‘ifs’, but it all seemed credible.
Then Rory Stewart walked out of Cumbria into the race. The former Tory leadership contender, now exiled from the party, is seeking the London Mayoralty as an Independent. He is surely hoping to win over Remainer centre-right voters who were never going to vote for Sadiq Khan, don’t want to vote for Brexiteer Tory candidate Shaun Bailey, and would rather not have to vote for Benita. He obviously feels that is a sizeable enough chunk from which to build momentum and conquer more of the centre ground.
Running as an Independent is though a considerable challenge. As one source in the London Liberal Democrats muttered darkly to me “he’s entirely dependent on George Osborne” – without a campaign infrastructure, he requires the London Evening Standard to get his message across.
Stewart himself acknowledges the difficulties he faces. “I’m very much the underdog,” he tells TheArticle. “I don’t have the money political parties have. I don’t have the data that they have.”
He is though, typically buoyant, outlining how he is enjoying all the conversations he is having in different parts of London. “I think London is just an extraordinary place,” he says. “It’s such a privilege to be in a city with that much political vigour and energy and where the issues where the issues are often so extreme and where the solutions can be so direct.”
Despite the practical obstacles in the way of his campaign, it is clear that Stewart’s candidacy has rocked Benita and the Lib Dems. She expected to have a clear run as the Remain candidate in the Remain city, lashing out at Brexiteer Bailey and Corbyn’s Candidate Khan. That approach has now been made more complicated. Consequently, her party is now trying to portray Stewart as another Brexiteer in the race, something that doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny (and something that some activists in London have privately hinted they are not totally convinced about as a message). For instance, an email from Benita to supporters following Stewart’s announcement read:
“Both the Conservative Party candidate and the new Independent are supporting Brexit deals, which would pull remain London out of the EU. But there is no Brexit deal which is good for London.”
“I’m somebody who voted Remain. I was thrown out of the Conservative Party for voting against a no-deal Brexit, and I ran against Boris in the leadership because I was against a no-deal Brexit,” is how Stewart responds to the charge he hasn’t resisted Brexit firmly enough. “I’m also someone who believes very strongly in compromise, in trying to bring people together and trying to find a way through this. My model for this has always been holding a citizens assembly.”
Having been attacked by the right of his former party for backing Remain, Stewart can’t help but note the irony of the other side saying that this stance is not strident enough. “The Tory machine has been saying I’m a Remainer for two-and-a-half years. Now the Lib Dems are saying I’m a Brexiteer,” he says wryly.
They may be trying to paint him as just another Brexiteer but the Lib Dems, for the moment, appear largely to be trying to kill Rory Stewart with kindness, keeping their focus in getting ahead of Bailey into second place. That peace won’t last long though. The race for City Hall is heating up.
