Brushing off the Brexit campaigner’s words, Mr Farron retorted: “It’s absolute nonsense, because what is believed, I mean for example across the Commonwealth, most Commonwealth heads of government are absolutely horrified at what the United Kingdom…” “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.
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As the late great Charles Kennedy said in those sepia-tinted pre-coalition days: to be a Liberal Democrat is to be an eternal optimist.
Conservative minister Tobias Ellwood also came under fire from the Lib Dems on Saturday afternoon, with the party’s foreign affairs spokesman calling on him to resign over his defence of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
But that increase hides the huge task they face to rebuild their parliamentary representation at Westminster where they now have eight MPs.
The Lib Dem leader will talk about his own grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease, saying the first home he was put in was “despicable”.
‘If you base your political strategy on divide and rule, do not be surprised if the people you have divided decide to give you a kicking, ‘ Mr Farron will say as he attacks Mr Osborne today. “It’s not civilised to let people slip through the net”.
And speaking to reporters after his conference speech on Saturday, Mr Lamb said there had been a “conspiracy of silence” on the scale of the challenges facing the health service. “But more grammar schools are not the answer”, he will say.
He will also call for the abolition of SATS tests in primary schools. And what are we doing, in 2016, threatening to relegate 80 per cent of our children to education’s second division by returning to the 11 plus?
Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown also spoke against Mr Farron and demanded the will of the British people be respected.
On Monday party members endorsed a proposal for a referendum on the terms of the final Brexit deal negotiated by the government, with the option of remaining in the EU. You are the prime minister.
He will add: “The Liberal Democrats have a plan”.
Mr Farron who has pledged to campaign for a second referendum will insist that the Liberal Democrats are the only party prepared to fight for Britain and its place in single market. I reckon, honestly, that three quarters of them could have been persuaded to vote Remain up until about two or three weeks out.
“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”.
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Farron said that uncertainty since June’s referendum, compounded by the likelihood of departure from the Single Market meant the Lib Dems have become “the free market, free trade, pro-business party” due to their avowedly pro-EU stance.
