LibDem leaders’ referendum history suggests expedient u-turns are not new phenomenon

Four LibDem leaders who campaigned for an EU referendum long before there was one

LibDem leader Jo Swinson has been criticised for cynical manoeuvring after the party performed a screeching u-turn on a new referendum – and welcomed yet another Tory into the party.

The LibDems now say that if they get the opportunity they will cancel Brexit altogether by revoking Article 50 outright – now that most opposition parties say they will support the referendum the LibDems have spent the last two years demanding.

The move has opened a huge ‘sanity gap’, with Boris Johnson’s Tories doing everything they can to engineer a no-deal Brexit and the LibDems wanting to stop Brexit without the UK’s voters having a say.

But the history of LibDem leaders suggests that screeching u-turns form part of their basic training – because the last four all campaigned for an EU referendum long before there was one.

Former leaders Nick Clegg and Tim Farron both campaigned in 2008 for the public to be given a vote on the UK’s EU membership – while Swinson’s immediate successor Vince Cable beat them to it by a year or so:

And video has emerged today of current leader Jo Swinson, also in 2008, on the LibDems’ front bench telling the House of Commons that the whole party wanted an in-out referendum:

It’s highly unlikely that Swinson will be challenged on this by the so-called ‘mainstream’ media, but the LibDems are hypocritical political chancers. Oh dear oh dear.

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