Farron tells Lib Dems to prepare for opposition

IT IS not often a political party finds itself benefitting from losing an argument.

By The Newsroom Monday, 12th September 2016, 2:15 am Updated Thursday, 15th September 2016, 4:30 pm

But since voters rejected the Liberal Democrats’ plea to remain in the European Union the party’s fortunes have taken a distinctly positive turn.

Angry Remain supporters have signed up as Lib Dem members and that pro-Europe sentiment, along with Labour’s ongoing woes, has contributed to a series of council by-election victories.

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The trend was underlined by last week’s surprise victory in the by-election for the vacant Mosborough ward seat on Sheffield City Council where it saw a 19 per cent swing from Labour.

It is only very small steps on the road to recovery, but less than 18 months since the party was decimated at the General Election it will allow leader Tim Farron to tell his party that it is “winning elections again” when it meets in Brighton this weekend.

“We need to have self-belief on the ground, we need voters to decide they are going to back us because without the Liberal Democrats there is not going to be any kind of proper opposition to this Conservative government,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

While circumstances are helping accelerate the revival of the Lib Dems, there are also concerns within the party that it is in danger of becoming a vehicle for opposition to others rather than attracting voters for positive reasons.

It is a path some believe the party followed before that took it into Government but also contributed to its dramatic collapse.

“All parties, there are people voting for them for all sorts of different reasons. That’s the wonder of a democracy.

“People will vote for parties that they support and vote for parties because they are against somebody else and we recognise that’s the case for all political parties.

“But I think what we are offering now is real clarity. I think one of the reasons our membership has shot up and why our results have been so strong over the summer is because we have been the only party that have offered clarity,” Mr Farron said.

“There’s a real sense that we need to have a party that is a strong decent opposition to the Conservative government, that believes in a Britain that’s open, tolerant and united.”

The theme of providing opposition to the Government is one to which Mr Farron repeatedly returns as the Lib Dems look to profit from Labour’s problems.

This weekend’s conference will give the Lib Dems the opportunity to present a starkly different image to voters to the one that they will see from Labour a week later when its leadership battle comes to a head.

“Whatever happens it would appear, and I say this genuinely with sadness and not with any glee, the Labour Party will be a dysfunctional party, shambolic and incapable of providing, even unwilling in terms of its likely leadership, to provide the proper opposition to this Conservative government,” Mr Farron said.

“This is the problem. If you are [a government] poorly opposed by a party that doesn’t know what it thinks and appears to have a totally different agenda, then you will make mistakes and let the country down.

“The reality is that there is nowhere else for a decent centre-left progressive party that is economically competent and believes in a Britain that is open, tolerant and united than the Liberal Democrats.

“Whatever position we found ourselves in after the last General Election I can’t affect that but I can affect what happens next.

“It is not so much an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats but a downright necessity that we become that serious opposition to the Tories.”

Whatever public support the Lib Dems manage to garner in the coming months, the fact the party has just eight MPs in the Commons will limit its ability to have an impact in the corridors of power.

Mr Farron insists he has “no idea” about the prospects of disillusioned Labour MPs defecting to the Lib Dems and swelling its ranks.

However he believes there remains a chance that a General Election could yet be called ahead of schedule.

“My sense is that Theresa May has said there won’t be one this year often enough for me to believe her,” he said.

“But I think the temptation to go to the country at some point before the end of the fixed term parliament will be great for her.