Labour couldn’t sell their case, so they tried to steer choice instead with a made-up “tactical vote” flyer before you can reach the polling station Right, so Labour has shoved a “tactical voting” leaflet through doors in Gorton and Denton that cites a tactical voting company calling itself “Tactical Choice”, telling people that Labour are the tactical voting choice in this by-election to keep out Reform. The only trouble is the whole stunt is a sham, as the tactical voting organisation being used to recommend a vote for Labour here appears to be entirely fake. Keir Starmer’s lot can dress this up with neat fonts and a little logo and the usual desperate air of adults doing something responsible, but when the claim on the paper is “an independent tactical voting organisation says vote Labour” and the accusation is “that organisation does not exist”, you’re not in the territory of persuasion, you’re in the territory of a party using outright deception to secure votes. Starmer’s party turning out to be a bunch of dirty little liars, well I can just hardly believe it(!) Green Party leader Zack Polanski has put the outspoken Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell on the spot over this in a letter, though the question being put to her isn’t “did some random volunteer get carried away”, the question is who signed off on a tactic that appears to be riddled with the worst excesses of bottom feeding scummery that relies on a voter believing a neutral outside body is speaking from a position of authority when it isn’t. The letter doesn’t play games with euphemisms either, it calls it lying to voters, and it asks a very simple question that a governing party hates being asked, which is whether it thinks different standards apply when it is in power and when it is fighting for a seat. Tactical voting exists because first past the post turns elections into a hostage situation. People don’t get to vote for what they want; they get told to vote against what they fear, and then they get blamed if the fear wins. That creates a market for tactical voting guides, because voters are trying to make a decision under constraint, and a party that can’t make a positive case learns to weaponise that constraint by turning it into a demand.