Tony Blair should be admired for his government’s achievements on workers’ rights and the health service, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said in a conference speech pitched squarely at moderate Labour voters.
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Mr Farron pointedly dismissed such talk as a “parlour” discussion of no interest to voters after Mr Clegg suggested a realignment of the centre-left, and Lord Ashdown called for a single pro-EU candidate to fight the Tories in the looming Witney by-election caused by David Cameron standing down as an MP.
Baroness Brinton agreed the pledge to raises taxes for the NHS was “bold” but added: “We are absolutely clear that the NHS is on its knees and needs investment”.
Mr Farron is understood to have spoken to Sir Vince by phone yesterday over his comments and to have said if he had concerns he could have raised them with him privately.
He told the party’s conference in Brighton he was amazed Labour Party members were “throwing around the word Blairite as if it’s the world’s most offensive insult”.
He said: “I think it’s a peculiar one”.
The Lib Dem leader is expected to recall his own experiences battling for a better home for his grandfather, who had Alzheimer’s, and call for a merger of NHS and care services. During the campaign, one of the group’s organisers, a life-long SNP man, told me he had spoken with no fewer than nine local party conveners concerned at the impact of an influx of new members into their constituency branches.
Of course, to be fair, Liam Fox did not undermine British business overseas or demoralise British business at home, because he could only have achieved those things if anyone actually took him seriously. Well, I say “new”, “new” in a “Britain went to the dogs when we lost the empire” sort of way.
When the Liberal Democrats were founded in 1988, as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, Labour was moving firmly to the political centre ground after its general election defeat of 1987.
“Having fine principles but no power is just turning your backs on the people who need you the most, its letting someone else win the day”, he said.
“This government wants us to forget this crisis, it’s too hard to solve, too risky to take a lead”.
‘It can not be right that such a momentous choice is secretly stitched up by bureaucrats on both sides of the Channel without the British people or parliament having a say, ‘ he said.
Mr Lamb will say: “Let’s look at the case for a dedicated health and care tax, shown on your pay packet”.
Protection of rights for European Union citizens and United Kingdom citizens, so that those who have settled in the United Kingdom are allowed to stay and British people living in European Union countries can remain.
And he is adamant that a strong opposition is needed in Westminster at a time when Prime Minister Theresa May has demonstrated her confidence by pushing for a new generation of grammar schools in England.
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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. “I want a society where people are valued for who they are”.
