In his keynote speech to conference, the party leader, presenting himself as the heir to Blair, insisted it was only the Liberal Democrats who wanted to stop the “calamity of Brexit” and the “tragedy” of seeing the Conservatives govern Britain for the next 25 years.
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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”.
“I disagree with him a lot, but”.
Sometimes you watch a politician say something and instantly get a preview of a future election campaign – particularly when they’ve just said, on camera, something which will be used against them again and again.
“The Corbyn crowd like to talk in terms of loyalty and betrayal”. “It’s not civilised to let people slip through the net”.
“The problem with Jeremy Corbyn is I don’t think he will work with anybody else, and he didn’t in the referendum, and that makes it very hard”, he said.
Mr Farron said he felt a sense of “bereavement” at the European Union referendum result.
Arguing that Labour has “left the stage” as an opposition, the Lib Dem leader also said he would raise taxes to fund the NHS and social care. There is a hole in the centre of British politics right now for a rallying point for people who believe in the politics of reason, of evidence, of moderation.
Liberal Democrat members also voted for nine priorities for Brexit negotiations, including securing Britain’s membership of the single market, and calling for MPs to have a vote on the government’s negotiating mandate before Article 50 is triggered.
“Trudeau’s Liberals leaped over an inadequate official opposition to defeat a right-wing Conservative government”.
The comments came as the Lib Dems floated the idea of imposing a special NHS tax. “But there are dozens of Tory seats in our reach”.
He will add: “The Liberal Democrats have a plan. And today, the absence of leadership from Theresa May is astonishing, the absence of clarity as to what will happen to our country is a disgrace”. He stressed that while the Tory Government had no plan, the Lib Dems had: to offer voters another referendum once the Brexit deal was formalised.
He was due to suggest Mr Blair’s premiership needed to be re-appraised and that although the Labour prime minister was wrong on the Iraq war, he was right on other issues such as tax credits. Which side would we be on if there was a soft Brexit, would we support Theresa May or would we be with [former United Kingdom Independence Party leader] Nigel Farage voting it down?
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Baroness Sal Brinton, president of the party and Christian, told Premier’s News Hour: “We are coming back because we have progressed”.
