• PM fails to stand up for rural communities over bank closures
• Cable: Catastrophic no-deal would push economy into recession
• Davey: Britain must be far more ambitious on offshore wind
• Lib Dems: Yet another embarrassing rejection of May’s Brexit

PM fails to stand up for rural communities over bank closures

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron today used Prime Minister’s Questions to urge the Prime Minister to properly compensate communities that have been abandoned by the banks and forced to use online banking instead.

According to the consumer group Which? around 3,000 bank branches have closed over the past three years.

Meanwhile over the same time period, innocent customers have lost an extra £2billion in online and financial fraud.

Speaking during Prime Ministers Questions, Tim Farron asked:

Will she agree that the banks have taken without giving for too long?

Will she meet with me to force the banks to compensate victims of fraud, to compensate the communities they have abandoned and to prevent banks closing the last branch in town?

In response, the Prime Minister refused to help abandoned communities and victims of financial fraud, instead saying that banks are “commercial organisations and those are decisions that they take.”

Following the exchange, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said:

It’s absolutely staggering and hugely disappointing that the Prime Minister has decided to turn her back on communities like Grange in my constituency that have been abandoned by the banks.

People who have been victims of financial fraud and those who have been let down by the banks deserve better than the Prime Minister shrugging her shoulders.

Cable: Catastrophic no-deal would push economy into recession

Commenting on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report into the implications for economic growth as a consequence of Brexit, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

The economy has been bumping along the bottom in the wake of Brexit uncertainty. This analysis by the OECD, while focused on a slowing global economy, picks out the UK as one of the worst performers among developed countries due to our weakening economic growth and falling business investment.

Not only have our growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 been severely downgraded, but the OECD expects our economy to suffer even if the Conservative Government gets its Brexit deal through, undermining claims of a so-called “deal dividend”. A catastrophic no-deal would push our economy into recession, inflicting great damage on jobs and living standards.

Davey: Britain must be far more ambitious on offshore wind

Commenting on the Government’s announcement of a new Offshore Wind Sector deal, Ed Davey, former Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said:

Britain must be far more ambitious on offshore wind, and build on the huge breakthroughs Liberal Democrats achieved on renewable power.

The UK is now the world leader in offshore wind, and the green power auctions Liberal Democrats pioneered have seen the cost of offshore wind tumble.

With renewable power costs now way below nuclear, it must be right to capitalise on this fabulous British success story – so we can tackle climate change faster and see more green jobs created.

Lib Dems: Yet another embarrassing rejection of May’s Brexit

Following further Brexit-related defeats for the Government in the House of Lords this evening, on parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals and membership of a customs union, Liberal Democrat Leader in the Lords, Dick Newby said:

The Conservative Government’s defeats this evening are yet another embarrassing rejection of Theresa May’s Brexit. The Lords has insisted on parliamentary scrutiny on future trade deals rather than letting Liam Fox decide what’s in our national interest.

We have also insisted on remaining in a customs union because we will not accept a Tory Brexit deal that wrecks supply chains, causes chaos at UK borders and leads to massive jobs losses.

Being inside a customs union but outside the EU would however still leave the UK poorer and deprive us of any say over the rules that govern the way we trade.

Both Theresa May’s and Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit plans have now been resoundingly defeated. The only real alternative and way out of this chaos is a people’s vote, with the option to stay in the EU.