A senior Liberal Democrat MP has reiterated the party’s commitment to holding a second referendum on Brexit amid an apparent split over the issue, saying the government has no mandate for whatever deal is eventually decided on.

Norman Lamb, the party’s health spokesman, said that with the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU still unknown, it was important for voters to have the chance to endorse or reject such a huge decision.



The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, has told delegates at the party’s annual conference in Brighton that Theresa May should be forced to put the details of any deal to the public, either in a second referendum or a general election, a position ratified in a vote on the conference floor.

While this view was backed by the former party leader Nick Clegg on Monday, another senior Lib Dem, Vince Cable, warned that such a move would be disrespectful to voters.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme before Farron’s conference speech on Tuesday, Lamb said that while his party respected the result of the 23 June referendum, the vote had limitations.

“We have no idea now what the government is going to negotiate and they in a sense have no mandate for the deal that they negotiate,” Lamb argued. “So it seems to me, on good democratic principles, we should put the final outcome of that to the British people.”

Asked what would happen if a second referendum turned down the proposed deal, Lamb said: “It means the deal the government has negotiated isn’t accepted by the British people. It then leaves the question as to whether we’d remain in the European Union. Ultimately, the people of this country should make that decision.”

Nick Clegg says Brexit chaos can help Lib Dems back to power Read more

A second referendum was needed because of the nature of the first vote, Lamb argued. “The problem we had with the referendum was that people were deciding between one known – staying in the European Union, and I have my own frustrations with the way the European Union has developed – but then on the other side a complete unknown, a decision to vote to leave but with no idea what the ultimate destination should be.”

A deal in which the UK was entirely out of the EU’s single market could greatly affect businesses, and thus affect tax revenues and public services, Lamb said, adding: “We have to surely endorse what is negotiated by the government.”

Cable has questioned this approach, telling a fringe meeting in Brighton: “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’.”

However, Clegg, now the party’s spokesman on Brexit, said: “I think Tim’s absolutely dead right. The call he’s made is one of those that will get a bit of criticism to begin with, but will be vindicated over time.

“The cul-de-sac this government finds itself in is so much worse than I think people appreciate, and things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better, and I think the public appetite will grow, in terms of what it means for themselves and their families at the end of the process.”

Clegg refused to back the calls by several centrist Labour MPs, including Rachel Reeves and Stephen Kinnock, for the government to insist on controls on freedom of movement as a key part of any Brexit deal. “You’ve got to be careful if you’re Labour. You’re not going to win a Dutch auction with the Conservatives or Ukip over immigration,” he said.



In his conference speech on Tuesday, Farron will blame the outcome of the referendum vote on “the calculating forces of darkness who care nothing for the working people of this country, nothing for our NHS, nothing for those who struggle to get by and who exploited that anger to win an exit from Europe that will hurt the poorest the hardest”.

He will say: “When Theresa May does agree a deal with the EU, we want the people to decide. And if the Tories say, ‘We’ve had enough referendums’, I say ‘You started it!’ How dare they let bureaucrats in Whitehall and Brussels stitch up our future.”

But the Lib Dem leader appears to be having a tough task of reaching out beyond his own party, with a new poll showing that the Lib Dems’ ratings have barely changed from a year ago. Just 22% of those polled by Ipsos Mori said Farron was doing his job well as leader of the party while one in three said they were dissatisfied.

Almost half of those surveyed said “don’t know”, when asked how well Farron was doing, an indication that the leader has barely raised his public profile since last year. When asked to compare Farron with the Liberal Democrat party, just 23% stated that they like the leader but slightly more – 28% – said that they liked the party, with no change from last year’s conference.