Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron will tell his party conference that his tactics “saved the Liberal Democrats,” saying the party’s increasing membership was a sign it was on the road to recovery.

Farron’s defence of his record came after a fraught session on the conference floor on Sunday, where party members attempted to overturn policy on a second Brexit referendum, in favour of a policy which would see Article 50 reversed without a public vote.

After a vote, party members voted in favour of retaining Farron’s policy of giving UK voters a referendum on the final Brexit deal, rather than changing policy to oppose leaving the EU under any circumstance.

Farron quit as Lib Dem leader after the June election, where the party won an additional four seats but failed to make a significant national impact.

Farron, who was succeeded by Vince Cable, will defend his record in a speech on Monday at the conference in Bournemouth, citing his strategy to build the party from the ground upwards.

“The day I took over as leader, one journalist predicted confidently that ‘the party that began with Gladstone will now end with Farron’,” he will say.



“I saw those assumptions that we were dead and buried and I resolved that we were going to survive, grow and win again. The Liberal movement of Gladstone, Lloyd George, Shirley Williams, Jo Grimond and Charles Kennedy – the movement I joined as a 16-year-old, was not going to die on my watch.”

Farron will say his leadership had seen the first local election gains in eight years as well as a record number of new members. “We saved the Liberal Democrats and I am proud of every single one of you.”

Cable repeated his prediction on Sunday that he believed it was possible he could become prime minister. “I think it’s perfectly plausible, actually,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show. “As leader of the third UK party, my job is to be the alternative prime minister. I think British politics is in a remarkable state of flux.”

Asked if the Lib Dems could get a Commons majority, Cable said: “It’s possible that we could break through. If British party politics starts to break up, if the traditional structures start to break up, and that could well happen, we are extremely well positioned with moderate, sensible policies. I am very confident talking about being an alternative prime minister.”

On Sunday, MP Jo Swinson gave her first conference speech as deputy leader, one of several MPs including Cable who won their seats back in June. Swinson said she was concerned over the direction western politics was heading in, calling it “the politics of the bully.”

Swinson said US president Donald Trump should not be offered a state visit, and said he was a product of “anti-liberal forces”. She said: “Trump is a bully, a misogynist and a racist.

“When calm heads and brave leaders are needed more than ever, global politics seems broken. A few years ago it would have seemed inconceivable that in such a crisis, China would be a voice of reason, and Russia more measured than America. The politics of the bully is back.”

Swinson said the party could not afford to wait for the mood to change. “As far as I can see, there is nothing inevitable about the triumph of liberal values. We need to understand what is going on, so we can work out what to do.”



She said the party “needs to be much more radical, both in what we propose and in how we craft it”.

Senior figures in the party have admitted the conference, Cable’s first as leader, will be relatively light on new policy, coming so soon after a general election.

However, both Cable and Swinson are said to be keen to ensure the focus is not entirely on Brexit, with both keen to discuss new economic policies and social justice. “An exit from Brexit is necessary, but not sufficient,” Swinson told the conference.

Former Lib Dem cabinet minister Ed Davey said he backed a new policy which would see company executives prosecuted if they rip off consumers by breaking competition laws.

Speaking to reporters in Bournemouth, the former energy secretary, who won his south London seat of Kingston and Surbiton back in June, said he attempted to force through the policy in coalition but had been blocked by former prime minister David Cameron.

“I suggested when we are hunting down cartels, when businesses are cheating the public, we should not go through the system we have where the competition authorities investigate and charge,” he said.

“That’s an administrative process – we should actually put people in court and have a prosecutor model as they do in the United States. I think if big businesses are cheating consumers, we should put them in the dock and properly question them in a much tougher, robust way.”

Davey said he backed action against both firms and individuals, but declined to name the sectors he had in mind when asked whether he was thinking specifically about energy companies.

“Ripping customers off of tens of millions is outrageous. If they are in breach of competition law they should feel the uncomfortable position of being put in the dock,” he said.

The party’s former leadership contender Norman Lamb announced he intends to stand down as Lib Dem health spokesman to concentrate on his new role as chairman of the Commons science and technology committee.

Lamb, whose constituency in North Norfolk had a majority vote to leave the EU, is known to be uncomfortable with the party’s stance on Brexit. Lamb told the Press Association last week the party needed to “start thinking again” about how it approached the issue.

“A lot of people felt that we were treating them as if they were idiots for having voted for Brexit,” he said. “And yet, as liberals, we ought to understand people’s anxieties about remote power.”