SNP could join the Remain alliance if it really wanted to – Christine Jardine

Jane Dodds won the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election in part because the Greens and Plaid Cymru realised there was a greater cause to pursue – staying in the EU – than their individual party agendas. The SNP has so far failed to do the same, writes Christine Jardine.

The Liberal Democrats won in Brecon and Radnorshire in part because other Remain-supporting parties did not stand (Picture: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

There was a moment on Friday when I realised that the shift in British politics, which so many of us have worked and waited years for, is actually happening.

And, perhaps ironically, it was a Twitter response to the by-election result in Wales from an SNP politician which convinced me.

In the immediate aftermath of the victory of the Remain-committed Liberal Democrats in Brecon and Radnorshire, the media recognised that it had been assisted by the alliance formed with Welsh nationalists and the Greens.

Suddenly the Scottish Nationalists were keen to get in on the act and blame others for the fact that they believe there has not been the same common approach to fighting Brexit in Scotland.

In a tweet which I was asked about on BBC Scotland, Mike Russell MSP apparently claimed that they would be happy to work with the Scottish Liberal Democrats and it was all Willie Rennie’s fault that they were not. That’s rich.

It is also a very selective representation of Scottish politics. But, even more than that, it is also an important indication that they recognise where the mood of the country really is. It is with Remain. Not the SNP, but Remain.

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For three years now, the SNP has been trying to use the EU referendum result to add to their array of grievance-led issues with the present UK Government. The SNP persistently use ideas with cross-party appeal as Trojan horses for their own agenda.

Take for example their recent proposal for citizens’ assemblies, an approach which most parties support on a variety of issues, and could have succeeded in winning support had it not been revealed as something of a political Trojan Horse. Simply another stepping stone to independence.

Or we could go right back to 2016 when the First Minister emphatically promised a cross-party approach to finding a pro-EU solution that was not about independence, only to dump it in favour of her party’s separatist agenda.

And that is all despite the fact that the argument they make for remaining in the EU is precisely the same as the case as my Lib Dem colleagues and I make for staying both part of the UK and a member of the EU. Which brings me to the crux of the problem.

Until the Scottish Nationalists are prepared to put their campaign for another independence referendum aside, they make it impossible for those of us who want to be in both the UK and the EU to work with them.

If they could just look, for a moment, at the wider picture and make resolving this Brexit crisis the only thing that matters, for the time being, they might be pleasantly surprised.

I appreciate it’s difficult for them. Independence is, after all, their raison d’etre. But it should not be impossible. It’s not so long ago I took part in a press conference in Edinburgh with members of the Labour, Green and SNP parties calling for a People’s Vote.

It had taken a while to get them onside for that particular argument, but they did eventually embrace it. At Westminster, politicians of all parties represented in Scotland – including, at times, Conservatives – have voted together to oppose an EU withdrawal deal which we felt would be damaging to the country and to block the no-deal which would be catastrophic.

On television on Friday, Labour’s Chris Bryant MP revealed that he and I have both been in the same room discussing our shared opposition to Brexit. It is no secret that Westminster is no longer divided solely along party lines but on whether you are for or against Brexit.

My new party leader, Jo Swinson, has made it clear she wants to work with other like-minded people to build the Remain movement which the Liberal Democrats lead in the UK.

Heidi Allen, the former leader of Change, was in Brecon campaigning for the ultimately successful Lib Dem candidate Jane Dodds because she recognises that the need for unity in opposing Brexit trumps all else. Likewise the Greens and Plaid stood aside to ensure a singular effective Remain campaign.

So for the SNP now to suggest intransigence on the part of anyone else just doesn’t ring true. From the most recent general election to the English council elections and the European elections in May, we have seen the shift away from the old two-party system to a more varied, and yet at same time consensual, approach grow ever stronger. The UK-wide opinion polls now depict a three or even four-party split in England and Wales, potentially five in Scotland.

And it has been abundantly clear over the past two years that what the British public wants most is for their politicians to fix the mess that we are currently in. We will only do that by talking to each, compromising and finding a consensus that allows us to put the bitterness and division of the past three years behind us.

In Brecon and Radnorshire, I believe we have made an important stride forward in achieving that goal. The modern forward-looking parties worked together, behind Jo Swinson’s leadership, to present a common cause to the public and were rewarded with their trust and votes.

Labour and Conservative continued to plough their own narrow, well-trodden, tribal furrow and were rejected. That in itself should tell us that the public has had enough of the traditional, confrontational approach at Westminster.

Many of us in parliament are frustrated beyond measure when the SNP continue to reject any approach but the negative insistence on using every issue simply to pit Holyrood and Westminster against each other. That benefits no-one.

In September, my new colleague Jane Dodds will take her place on the bench beside me. Her victory was in part due to the recognition by our colleagues in the Green and Plaid parties that there was a greater cause to pursue than our individual agendas. I continue to hope that the SNP might somehow come to that same recognition and join the new politics which works for all.