[2] Clement Attlee's post-war "progressive alliance" in the Labour Party[3] saw the introduction of the National Health Service, comprehensive education and the welfare state.
[2] Green Party politician and academic Rupert Read has described the tactics of Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the 1997 general election, when they focused on attacking the Conservatives rather than each other, as a precedent for a progressive alliance.
[7] The idea was also proposed[8][9][10] in the run-up to the 2017 general election and after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, in which the vote to leave the EU ("Brexit") was won by a small majority.
[15] In 2019, such tactical voting to prevent a hard Brexit was advocated by the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, in the run-up to that year's General Election.
[20] Several grassroots organisations,[21] Facebook groups[22][23] and Twitter accounts[24] have sprung up with similar names and aims, with tactical voting being encouraged.
[26] There are no mutually agreed policy aims between the various organisations, but these would likely include electoral reform to change the voting system (e.g. proportional representation).