Tactical voting group works to prevent SNP landslide

Victor Clements is a proud Liberal Democrat who stood for the party in the 2011 Scottish parliament election - but he makes no apology for spending much of his recent time trying to nudge voters to back the Conservatives or Labour.

As a board member of Forward Together, the pro-tactical voting group, Mr Clements sees his first priority as preventing a general election landslide for the Scottish National party that he says would be play an "utterly destructive" role in Westminster.

"My conscience is quite clear," he says.

Mr Clements is not alone. Interest in anti-SNP tactical voting is rising amid polls suggesting the party will seize all but a handful of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats on May 7, casting new doubt on the UK's constitutional future.

A Channel 4/YouGov survey last week suggested that unionist willingness to vote tactically could save nine Labour and two Lib Dem seats from the SNP - a potentially crucial margin in what many analysts say is likely to be a hung parliament.

Peter Kellner, YouGov president, said: "Given the significance of Scotland in this election - both constitutionally and in terms of its impact on whether Labour or the Conservatives end up as the largest party at Westminster - it is clear that tactical voting in Scotland may have a real effect on Britain's future."

Perhaps the biggest bar to effective tactical voting is agreeing who is best placed to stop the SNP in each constituency. Forward Together distributes leaflets showing that in Perth and North Perthshire, the Tories were the strongest pro-union party in 2010, while incumbent Labour led in Perthshire South.

Mr Clements rationalises his support for rival parties by noting that elsewhere tactical voting will favour the Lib Dems. He has persuaded three Tory supporters to vote tactically in nearby North East Fife, which the Lib Dems won in 2010.

But in a reminder of the impossibility of forging any formal unity among the pro-union parties, Ruth Davidson, Scottish Conservatives leader, dismisses the idea that the Lib Dems are a bulwark against the SNP in Fife.

Ms Davidson told the Financial Times during a campaign stop in the northeast Fife town of Cupar on Saturday that the Lib Dems were facing annihilation in Scotland and would not be an electoral force there "for a long time".

She added: "Scotland and Scottish politics have changed utterly since 2010 so there is no point looking at who the current MP is."

Tactical voting advocates differ on whether voters should use local polling results to decide who to back while candidates uniformly insist they are real contenders, suggesting efficient allocation of anti-SNP votes is unlikely.

While YouGov said its poll suggested that tactical voting could reduce the SNP haul by 11 seats to at total of 42, John Curtice, Scotland's highest profile psephologist, argued that when such factors are considered, just four SNP wins might be prevented.

"Tactical voting may help deny the SNP a few seats, but in truth it seems incapable of recreating on May 7 the unionist coalition that succeeded in defeating independence last September," Mr Curtice says.

There is also a risk that promoting pro-union unity will help the SNP persuade voters it is the alternative to three "Westminster parties" with little to distinguish them.

The SNP has been ruthless in painting Labour's decision to campaign alongside the widely disliked Tories against independence as a betrayal of its traditional values.

In Perth and North Perthshire, SNP incumbent and former rock band keyboards player Pete Wishart says suggestions that people should vote Tory merely infuriate Labour supporters.

"What they are doing is reminding everybody in Perth and North Perthshire that this is a close run contest between us and the Tories," Mr Wishart says. "They are doing us a favour and we are grateful to them for their contribution."

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