08:45

At the Lib Dem conference former business secretary Sir Vince Cable, appearing at a fringe meeting with TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, set out a rather different position from Tim Farron and much of the rest of his party on Brexit.

Farron has made clear he will fight to keep Britain in the EU, and called for a second referendum to ratify the details of any exit deal - in which the LibDems would back remain. But Cable said:

I just don’t agree with that: I don’t think we can say that. We should never have had the referendum in the first place; but the public have voted, and I do think it’s seriously disrespectful and politically utterly counterproductive to say, ‘sorry guys, you got it wrong, let’s try again’.

He added that by rejecting even a “soft Brexit”, which preserved the best aspects of the “European ideal,” the LibDems would be lining up with Ukip, who would like to see a hard Brexit. “We should be very careful about the company we keep,” he said.