Lib–Lab pact
Lib-Lab Pact has been the term used to describe a working arrangement between the UK's political parties of the Liberals (later Liberal Democrats) and the Labour.
There have been four such arrangements at the national level. In many local councils there are similar arrangments.
Before the Labour Party had been formed, various candidates stood for Parliament with backing of the Liberal Party and the Labour Representation League, including Thomas Burt, Harry Broadhurst and Alexander Macdonald. These MPs were referred to as 'Lib-Lab', although there was not a formal 'pact'.
1903
In 1903 an agreement was made between Herbert Gladstone (then Chief Whip of the Liberal Party) and Ramsay MacDonald (leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party) that, in around fifty constituencies, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party would not stand against each other, and thus risk splitting their vote. As a result of this agreement, in contests against the Conservative party, 29 Labour MPs were returned at that year's general election.
1977
In March 1977 after James Callaghan's Government went into minority government, he and David Steel negotiated an agreement that they would work together, within limitations. This maintained Callaghan's position as Prime Minister and Labour in power. It lasted until the following year.
National Assembly for Wales
When the first elections to the new Welsh Assembly took place in 1999 no one party had an absolute majority, and the two parties shared power, including ministerial appointments, with Labour the majority party. The agreement ended at the elections of 2003 when Labour gained a one seat majority.
Scottish Parliament
In 1999, after the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in July of that year, the Lib Dems signed up to what was termed a "partnership government" with Labour with both parties providing ministers in a shared government. In the succeeding elections of 2003 the joint working continued, with Labour's Rt Hon Jack McConnell MSP as First Minister of Scotland, and the LibDems' Jim Wallace QC MSP as Deputy First Minister (and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning).
Constitutional Committee
Whilst not a pact, ahead of the 1997 election Labour Leader Tony Blair and LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown set up the Labour-Liberal Democrat joint committee on constitutional reform to discuss devolution in Wales and Scotland, and led to Prime Minister Tony Blair setting up a joint Lib-Lab cabinet committee. In part this led to the regional alliances noted above. The committee was disbanded by Tony Blair and Charles Kennedy in September 2001.