Lib Dems ‘make grab for centre ground’ with offer for small businesses

Mr Farron believes that his party would be able to take advantage of a “vast space” in the centre ground caused by Labour’s election of left-winger Mr Corbyn and David Cameron’s policies since taking office without the restraints imposed on him by the Lib Dems.

Highlighting the new members, Mr Farron will say: “By their simple act of joining us they proclaim that fear and division will not win, that liberalism can and must win”.

Tonge said that several unnamed members of the Liberal Democrats could also defect as a new broom sweeps through the Labour party and Corbyn gathers more supporters.

Wales’s only Liberal Democrat MP has admitted the party faces “a huge challenge” in next May’s assembly elections. Having had the result in May, against all the odds we matter more than we have done for a generation’.

But while Mr Farron maintained his opposition to an extra runway at Heathrow he said he was “open-minded” about other options for increasing capacity around the capital.

As part of their pitch to Labour voters, the Liberal Democrats will unveil a new policy at conference on Sunday of a start-up allowance for new business owners worth more than £2,500 over six months.

Speaking as he arrived on the first day of the party’s autumn gathering, Mr Farron said the Lib Dems are now the “progressive movement Britain was now crying out for”.

Baroness Williams, a Lib Dem peer who was one of the “Gang of Four” rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, later backed Mr Farron by warning that “trying to form a new party would be a mistake”.

Some of them are in other parties. Some of them are not yet in the Liberal Democrats.

Since May we’ve seen the Tories’ claims to be the party of working people exposed as a sham. But people across the United Kingdom , from those hit by the Bedroom Tax to those on NHS waiting lists, are still feeling the effects of the Lib Dems’ legacy.

Therefore, Sir Vince said he can foresee several defections to his party as he alleged it could be more realistic for many disgruntled Labour MP to work with the Lib Dems on individual issues.

Sir Vince told the BBC Radio 5 Live Pienaar’s Politics it was conceivable the “Lib Dem fightback” could happen more quickly than expected.

Mr Farron says he is acting as an “agony uncle” for distressed Labour MPs following the election of Jeremy Corbyn – and is encouraging them to defect to his party.

“We will make our mark in Westminster and in Holyrood, the National Assembly in Wales, the London Assembly and the European parliament – We have dozens of Parliamentarians who will stand up for decency, liberalism and common sense”.

He said: “There are many voters who will never back the Tories, and are now desperately unhappy with Labour’s leftward lurch, who will be looking for a new home”.