Last night’s episode of ‘Carry on Brussels’ on Channel 4 featured our own MEP, Catherine Bearder. Unfortunately she was juxtaposed with UKIP Press Officer, but it makes for entertaining viewing.

Catherine is seen gathering support amongst her European allies for her Exit from Brexit campaign.

The documentary demonstrates the links that Catherine has with Guy Verhofstadt MEP, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator on Brexit. He is a former Prime Minister of Belgium, but of more importance to us, he is the Leader of ALDE, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, which is the political group in the European Parliament to which UK Liberal Democrats are affiliated.

Catherine is shown greeting him as a friend in various meetings, including one with a UK delegation including Lindsay Northover (our Foreign Affairs spokesperson in the Lords), Sarah Ludford (former Lib Dem MEP) and Graham Tope.

The main filming was done late last year at the point where the EU (through Verhofstadt) stated its three terms for continuing the Brexit talks – protecting the rights of citizens, the terms of the financial settlement, and crucially, finding a solution for the Irish border.

In the debate Catherine said:

May’s Florence speech has left more waffle, fudge and half eaten cake on the table than is good for anyone’s cholesterol.

She voted in favour and was rewarded with a copy of a letter sent from David Davis to Vince Cable, saying that she had acted against the best interests of the UK. Davis effectively demanded that Vince Cable ‘sack’ her. How exactly he was supposed to achieve that is not clear.

You can watch the programme here.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames where she is still very active with the local party.