A LibDem vote is far from wasted

The Tories will try very hard to say a LibDem vote is a wasted vote. They are wrong.

Labour are epically failing to provide a meaningful opposition, especially over Brexit. We're doing that job.

The more votes a party has, the more exposure it gets on things like Question Time and Any Questions. The Tories want to say that a LibDem vote is a wasted vote because they are desperate to avoid being challenged. Given the pig's breakfast they are making of Brexit, I am not surprised.

We took an almighty hammering in the 2015 General Election, and are bouncing back in style. We've picked up 31 seats in council by elections since the referendum. In the County Council elections our share of the vote was up to a poll-defying 18%. Here in Hertford and Stortford this put as back in second place. Nationally, we're expecting to see people like Julian Huppert and Vince Cable back in the Commons, and a host of fresh LibDem faces. Every MP we get, and every vote we win, strengthens our ability to hold the government to account in the next parliament.

If the predictions are right, 2017 will be an election that Labour lose: they've given up being a credible government-in-waiting. If the Tories come back on an increased majority it's the pro-Remain Tories who will be the voice of sanity, stopping their cavalier colleagues crashing the country on Eurosceptic ideology. The more we eat into Mark Prisk's majority here in Hertford and Stortford, the more pressure he'll be under to come out on the side of sanity. Sending a Liberal Democrat MP to Westminster in his place will be the most positive thing we can do.