Lib Dems mount assault on middle ground

LABOUR MPs disillusioned with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as their new leader have contacted Liberal Democrat chief Tim Farron, the South Lakes MP claimed.

“A huge space has opened up for a responsible, progressive party in British politics”.

The Lib Dem leader warned the audience that we “once again see the prospect of a decade or more of Tory rule, and it fills us with dread”.

Interestingly, at the time of writing 44% of respondents to the poll at the bottom of the page think that moderate Labour MPs should join the Liberal Democrats.

Labour is heading for its own funeral under Jeremy Corbyn, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron claimed last night.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 ahead of the party’s conference in Bournemouth, Sir Vince said Corbyn’s victory would be a a “way back” for the beleaguered party, which suffered devastating election losses in the 2015 general election.

“And unless it is in some way effectively unified, the Tories will just have a monopoly on power”. Whether the Liberal Democrat membership would welcome them is, of course, another matter. A record 2,500 members are expected at the five-day conference.

“I’ve had various unsolicited texts, some of them over the weekend, where I felt like I was being an agony aunt rather than anything else”, he said. But we are their home.

It plans policy announcements this week to show that Mr Farron is more credible than Labour on the economy.

“So we have no right to sit in a comfort zone, every family whose home is at risk because the Tories undermine the recovery that we built; every desperate refugee turned back at the port; every business facing ruin if we leave the European Union , every one of them is depending on us”.

He said: “It certainly is not right that over a period of five years we end up accepting as many as Germany are taking in a weekend”.

Opening the conference earlier this afternoon Baroness Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem Party President, criticised the Conservatives for their savage welfare cuts calling them the “nasty party” and she described the scale of Labour’s lurch to the left.

Party activists had previously ruled out airport expansion in south-east England. “But I’m open-minded about other expansions and other options for London and the South-East”.