Serpents, Goats and Turkeys

The definitive, insider history of the often turbulent political relationship between the Liberals and Labour.

Natural allies or fierce competitors? For the past century, Britain’s two major centre-left parties have co-existed in sometimes harmonious but more often fraught duopoly, from the 1903 agreement that a prominent Liberal complained was ‘nursing into life a serpent which would sting their party to death’ to the 1976–77 pact that gave us the phrase ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ and beyond, to the failed negotiations that led to the controversial 2010–15 Lib Dem–Conservative coalition.

Charting 100 years of British political history, Serpents, Goats and Turkeys explores the formal and informal arrangements that have existed between the parties, covering electoral deals, support for minority governments, formal pacts and full coalitions. What have been the overlaps of policy and ideology, and where have the parties been most divided? What explains the periods of co-operation but also the unwillingness or inability to work together for any significant time?

In the wake of the 2024 ‘Loveless Landslide’, former coalition Cabinet minister David Laws also draws on unpublished records and private diaries from the past thirty years of Lib–Lab wrangling to consider the likely options in the event of a future hung parliament. Should the parties work together? Would they be able to? And what are the prospects for voting reform? The answers to such questions will have major implications for British democracy and the future of our politics.