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Leadership contests are like buses – you wait around a while for one and then two arrive at once.

Not only will the country be saying goodbye to Theresa May as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party in the coming weeks but Vince Cable will also be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

In the race to replace Mr Cable at the top of the anti-Brexit party is their home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey and deputy party leader Jo Swinson, with its 105,000-strong anti-Brexit membership due to elect a winner on July 23.

Both candidates held ministerial positions in the coalition government with the Tories and the pair suffered in the 2015 fall-out, losing their respective seats in the general election four years ago, before returning to Parliament in 2017.

Parliamentary correspondent Patrick Daly spoke to both contenders to hear how they compared when it came to squaring their past record, their thoughts on Brexit, efforts to tackle climate change and their plans for the future.

On trying to stop Brexit

(Image: Getty Images)

Sir Ed, Kingston and Surbiton MP, has proposed toppling any future prime minister who proposes leaving the European Union without a deal.

He predicted that 20 to 30 Tory MPs could be tempted "when push comes to shove" to put the "country before their party" and bring down their own leader to usher in a government of national unity, with many other Labour MPs joining them "in this moment of crisis for our country".

He said: “I have said that under my leadership we would endorse a government of national unity with other people from political parties to bring down Boris [Johnson] or whoever. We wouldn't get to a general election.

"The purpose of the government of national unity would be to provide the way to a 'people's vote'. It would be a temporary solution to get us out of this disastrous mess and free us from this complete and utter nightmare. It would be democratic because it would be the people who have the final say.”

Mrs Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, also wants a collaborative approach – but thinks a less drastic course of action would be more likely to succeed in the plan to stop Brexit.

She said: “I happen to think it is probably easier to get Tory MPs to support a ‘people’s vote’ than to support a government of national unity. But I’m not going to stand here and rule stuff out because it may well be that we get to that situation.

“Everyone that is enthusiastic about a ‘people’s vote’ has already voted for it and we are now definitely in the realm of people who would rather not have a ‘people’s vote’ but who are so worried about a no-deal Brexit that they see this as an acceptable thing in order to prevent no-deal.”

On the years in power with the Tories

A London School of Economics graduate, Mrs Swinson was appointed employment minister in 2012 by then-prime minister David Cameron and even served briefly as an aide to former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg while he was deputy prime minister.

She said: “I think there is a lot to be proud of. We made the right decision to go into coalition government in the national interest at a time of national crisis.

“In owning those successes, we need to be honest about the places we got it wrong as well and where we made mistakes. I think we just need to explain to people we’ve also learned from that – there is a degree of humility required here.

(Image: Jeff Overs/BBC via Getty Images)

“We totally got it wrong on the bedroom tax, for example. I think we need to explain to people we’ve learnt from that and we did experience a significant electoral crisis in 2015 – we went from 57 to eight MPs and in Bristol, people like Stephen [Williams, former Bristol West MP] lost their seat and Steve Webb [former Lib Dem MP for Thornbury and Yate] and me in East Dunbartonshire, and we’ve been able to reflect on that and learn from it.

“So, I think this is about what we are proposing for the future, having learned from our experience of governing about how to make change in the country and recognising that there is significant transformation that our country needs.”

Sir Ed was a business minister and then energy secretary when Clegg and Cameron shared power between 2010 and 2015.

He played a major role, as secretary of state, in negotiating the Hinckley Point C deal – a new nuclear reactor in Bridgwater in Somerset that will be twice as expensive as the 2012 Olympics once finished.

(Image: David Mirzoeff/PA Wire)

The 53-year-old said he stood by his efforts and argued that he got a good deal for British tax payers.

“At the time when we were negotiating that, nuclear was much, much cheaper than other renewables such as offshore wind,” said the Oxford graduate.

“People need to see that in context – it is very easy to say that it was wrong but at the time it looked like a good deal.

“I have always been sceptical about nuclear but I took a risk because environmentalists were saying that it was low-carbon and climate change was the issue. Hinckley Point will help us to tackle climate change and will be a help to our energy security. That is, if it is ever built.

“Nuclear has a reputation for never paying for its clean-up costs and overrunning on its bill costs. The price we agreed for Hinckley involved the cost of decommissioning later – that has never been done before. We wrote in the costs of waste management which will take place in 100 years’ time.”

On the importance of tackling climate change

(Image: Daily Star)

Sir Ed, who hails from Nottinghamshire, said climate change would be “the number one issue” for his leadership after Brexit.

“My leadership bid is first and foremost about stopping Brexit because if we are interested in tackling climate change then we need to be at the international table.

“The number one issue after Brexit stopping Brexit is climate change. This is about restructuring our economy – I call it de-carbonaising capitalism.

"You can't do that overnight but there has to be a transition. If we are serious about climate change, then we have to be clear with those putting the money in that they can't keep investing in the polluting stuff and instead should be putting it into the green stuff.”

Mrs Swinson, who took her five-year-old son to the Extinction Rebellion protest in London, said it was time to listen to the younger generation.

The 39-year-old said: “The economy does not work well enough for enough people and we do need a different relationship between business and society and, as Liberal Democrats, I think we can say with credibility that this is the future we’re going to paint – to transform the economy so it works better for people and the planet because we are in the middle of a climate emergency.

“And in my campaigning in Bristol, that is an issue which is very upper most in the minds of many people in the city and, as Lib Dems, we’ve always had a very strong commitment to the environment and with the IPCC report [which said world leaders had 12 years to act to stop irreversible climate damage], it is more important now than ever before.

“I think the voice of young people in this is so important because it is about the future. I think about young people at secondary school who write to me and get in touch and having spoken to the protesters who were taking part in the school strikes for climate and it’s like, ‘These are the people we should be listening to – they get it’.

“They totally get it and politicians have been far too slow."