Labour and Tory moderates need to defect to the Liberal Democrats in order to defeat a lurch to the extremes in British politics, party leader Tim Farron has warned. That is what will lead to gridlock in the next few years.
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“Tony Blair’s government gave us the National Minimum Wage”.
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.
“The public have voted and I do think it’s seriously disrespectful and politically utterly counterproductive to say: ‘Sorry guys, you’ve got it wrong, we’re going to try again, ‘ I don’t think we can do that”.
“You have got to be guided by the evidence, whatever it might be”.
“The Corbyn crowd like to talk in terms of loyalty and betrayal”.
“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.
Jeremy Corbyn has already “thrown in the towel” over the EU, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron will claim.
Lib Dem leaders always find themselves giving speeches in which they have to differentiate themselves from both the Tories and Labour and Farron had strong passages on both. “There is a hole in the center of British politics right now; a huge opportunity for a party that will stand up for an open, tolerant and united Britain”.
“What are we doing, in 2016, threatening to relegate 80% of our children to education’s second division by returning to the 11-plus?” he will say.
With Labour expected to re-elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader, Mr Farron appealed directly to the party’s centrist supporters to switch to the Lib-Dems, though he was set to admit it was “a big ask”.
He said he could emulate Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose party leapt from third place in to win power. “But there are dozens of Tory seats in our reach”.
“The only movement with the desire and the potential to stop the calamity of Brexit and the tragedy of a generation of Conservative majority rule, is this movement, is the Liberal Democrats”, he said.
And he will attack the Prime Minister, saying: “Theresa May says Brexit means Brexit”.
The Lib Dems are celebrating a surge in people joining the party.
Brazenly making a grab for the catchphrase so successfully used by Nigel Farage in the European Union referendum debate, he warned against a “hard Brexit”, with Britain plunging out of the single market.
“But we will not let Nigel Farage’s vision for Britain win”.
“And if some people can just shrug and accept this, well, I can’t”.
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Closing the annual Lib Dem conference in Brighton this afternoon, Farron’s speech was dominated by the risks presented by Brexit to the economy as he sought to position the Lib Dems as the party of business and innovation, while also highlighting its long-standing support for green issues.
