A leading Liberal Democrat was in Watford today and stressed the importance of "tactical voting" in next month's General Election.

Chuka Umunna was at the home of Watford FC this morning to launch his party's foreign policy.

The Lib Dems say Watford was chosen to host the speech because the town continues to be a "target seat" for the party - despite rival parliamentary candidate Chris Ostrowski claiming it is a "two horse race" between his Labour and the Conservatives.

Despite coming very close to winning in 2010 and 2005, the Lib Dems were trounced by both Labour and the Tories in 2017, polling just 5,335 votes - 21,000 votes less than the Conservatives and 19,000 less than Labour. 

Mr Umunna was not allowed to respond to our question about how realistic he thinks it is that the Lib Dems can overturn that kind of majority in Watford.

But Mr Umunna, who defected from the Labour party to launch Change UK, before joining the Lib Dems in 2019 after a short stint as an Indepedent, did speak about the importance of tactical voting at next month's General Election.

Watford Observer:

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The Cities of London & Westminster candidate insisted that only his party can take seats away from the Conservatives and that voters can play a "crucial role" in Tory Lib Dem marginals.

He said that no polls were predicting Labour to take any Tory seats and said Jeremy Corbyn's party "are not a Remain party".

When asked if he feared the Remain vote would be split in constituencies across the UK, Mr Umunna said: "Labour is very clear it is not a Remain party. In spite of that, they (Labour) were approached through the Unite to Remain national organisation to see whether they were interested in having initial discussions to see if they would be part of a Remain alliance, and they completely dismissed that and wouldn't engage with that at all.

"What we are seeing is we are much better placed in Tory held seats to take those seats from the Conservatives than Labour in a number of places, and that's because we have a very clear position on Europe."

Watford Observer:

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Despite Mr Umunna claiming Labour are "not a Remain party", Watford Labour candidate Mr Ostrowski has repeatedly said he "would back Remain in all circumstances".

Conservative candidate Dean Russell has said he will back Boris Johnson's Brexit deal.

Mr Umunna also said his party will uphold the UK's commitments to NATO, which he says "has been a cornerstone of the defence of our country".

On December 4, world leaders will gather at The Grove hotel near Chandler's Cross for a NATO summit.

Following his speech at Vicarage Road, Mr Umunna joined Watford Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Cllr Ian Stotesbury for an afternoon of canvassing around the town.