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Lib Dem members vote for second European Union referendum

“If the only way to fund a health service that meets the needs of everyone is to raise taxes, Liberal Democrats will raise taxes”, Mr Farron will say.

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And on education, he is expected to pledge to abolish primary SATs.

The Lib Dem leader will talk about his own grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease, saying the first home he was put in was “despicable”.

“We will go to the British people with the results of our Beveridge commission and we will offer a new deal for health and social care, honest about the cost, bold about the solution”.

He was also forced to apologise to rights campaigner Peter Tatchell – after claiming Mr Tatchell agreed with his decision to vote against 2008’s Sexual Orientation Regulations.

Branding the Tories arrogant and Labour irrelevant, Mr Farron used the opening day of the Lib Dem conference in Brighton to urge those disillusioned with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to jump ship. “And if the evidence points in that direction, then that’s where we should go, but it’s important we should have this consultative session”, Mr Farron said.

He said: “The real danger (is) that those who voted Remain are so angry with those who voted Leave that they patronise them, demonise them and choose not to understand”.

“If the great Liberal William Beveridge [1879-1963] had written his blueprint today, when people are living to the ages they are now, there is no doubt he would have proposed a National Health and Care Service”.

Speaking this morning (18 September) on the BBC Andrew Marr show, he made the case for the Lib Dems to replace Labour as a viable opposition to a Conservative government.

“We all deserve to know that, no matter what happens, we will be cared for properly and treated with dignity and respect”, he will say.

“We need to face the hard truth that the NHS needs more money”, he will say.

He said: “The fact that we are asking ‘should we seek to prevent people entering sex work?’ is part of the problem”.

“Not only taking us out of the European Union, but taking us out of the single market as well”.

However, the move is strongly opposed by the party’s former Business Secretary Vince Cable, who told the Lib Dem leader to ditch the policy because it is “seriously disrespectful and politically utterly counterproductive”.

Labour is “hopelessly divided and patently unfit for government, with no plan for the economy or the country; led by a man who is obsessed with refighting the battles of the past and ignoring the damage the government is doing to our future”, Farron said.

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He called on his party to rebuild its representation on local councils electoral district by electoral district and emulate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s achievement in bringing his Liberal Party back to power.

Tim Farron MP