Author Archives: NewsHound

NewsHound

Farron: Lib Dems will not make a pact with Corbyn’s Labour

By NewsHound | Tue 7th February 2017 - 1:01 pm

Tim Farron went to Stoke-on-Trent yesterday to persuade students to register to vote ahead of today’s deadline.

While he was there, he spoke to the Huffington Post. He was asked about reports over the weekend that Labour were seeking an alliance with us in Stoke. Not much chance of that, he said. How can you have a progressive alliance with people who are not progressive?

When asked if Corbyn was keen for a pact, he said: “If he’s doing it he’s doing it via gunboat diplomacy as I only hear it via the media.

“No direct approach has been made at all.”

He added: “The notion that we want to be aligned with any of the parties, or stand down in favour of one of the parties, who is backing a hard Brexit – well, what good would that do the national message? What good would that do those people in the country, who I believe to be the majority, who don’t want a hard Brexit.

“How can you have a progressive alliance with somebody who’s not progressive?”

 But he was more sympathetic to the idea of working with one Green in particular:
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NewsHound

LibLInk: Alex Cole-Hamilton: On selling our souls for a US trade deal

By NewsHound | Sun 5th February 2017 - 10:56 am

Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton is a vocal opponent of Donald Trump. He’s always had a massive interest in US politics. In 2008, he and his best friend Kevin Lang went out to Virginia to campaign for Barack Obama.

He’s written for the Scottish Lib Dems website to talk Trump and trade deals – specifically why we mustn’t allow our commitment to human rights to be diminished.

Many have watched in horror as the progressive legacy of Barrack Obama has been comprehensively devoured in the early days of Donald Trump’s post-truth presidency and with it, a cold awakening to a new kind

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Lindsay Northover: UK aid: High impact, low cost

By NewsHound | Fri 3rd February 2017 - 2:55 pm

Former Lib Dem International Development Minister Lindsay Northover has been writing for Politics Home about the benefits for both recipients and us at home in the UK of our international aid budget. This is very important to read when it is clear that this is the next target of the right wing media and political types.

She wrote of the impact on disease prevention:

Since 2000 and the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, the world achieved its commitment to halve extreme poverty. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted globally in 2015 aim to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, leaving no one behind. That is a supreme challenge. But it is clearly the right thing to do and in our interest. The instability fostered in the world by poverty, migration, climate change, conflict, must be tackled collectively.

This is why my Lib Dem colleagues Michael Moore and Jeremy Purvis took their private member’s bill through Parliament in the last days of the Coalition to secure that future commitment of 0.7 percent of GNI on aid. Many members across both Houses helped us, together with NGOs, and tributes are paid to the UK internationally for making this commitment.

So let us look at disease control and elimination – which is just one area that the UK is a world leader in, but which is topical as we pass the fifth anniversary of the London Declaration in 2012, when a major increase of funding for neglected tropical diseases was announced.

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NewsHound

Ros Scott on the Article 50 Bill and how Brexit has affected the Liberal Democrats

By NewsHound | Sun 29th January 2017 - 8:55 am

Liberal Democrat Peer Ros Scott has been talking to FNF Europe about the Article 50 judgement this week, the progress of the Bill through Parliament and the effect Brexit has had on the Liberal Democrats.

First of all, she spoke about the significance of the Supreme Court judgement:

is mixed news for the Government; Parliament may well now be more confident in asserting its rights as the negotiating process unfolds and issues such as access to the Single Market, the acquired rights of citizens and membership of EU bodies will be hotly contested. If the impacts of triggering Article 50

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Dick Newby: Parliament, Article 50 and the case for a second referendum

By NewsHound | Sat 28th January 2017 - 3:00 pm

Lib Dem Leader in the Lords Dick Newby has been writing about the EU referendum and Brexit for the Reimagining Europe website.

He is clear that Brexit will not resolve the problems which motivated people to vote to leave:

The overarching message which I take from the result, is that very many people feel alienated from the way the country is run and are worried about their economic futures. They don’t see the benefits of recent social and economic change. And they see large scale immigration as a threat, not as a benefit. Brexit alone would not assuage these fears, not least

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Sarah Olney: Theresa May’s visit to Turkey betrays our liberal values

By NewsHound | Sat 28th January 2017 - 11:00 am

Fresh from her meeting in Washington with a man who has extolled the effectiveness of torture, admitted sexually assaulting women and who thinks building walls between nations is a good idea, our Prime Minister heads today to meet the leader of a so-called democracy where human rights mean nothing and journalists are imprisoned.

Sarah Olney has written a blistering article in the Guardian, attacking the PM for betraying our liberal values instead of safeguarding our trading relationship with the democracies on our doorstep.

This tawdry tour shames Britain. This is a defining period on the international stage and we must consider to what extent this new course is safeguarding both our interests and values around the world.

In an age of “alternative facts”, there is no doubt about the realities of the Erdoğan regime. Even before last July’s failed coup, Erdoğan had begun systematically dismantling Turkey’s democratic institutions. Since the coup, he has embraced full-frontal authoritarianism. He is not only locking up journalists, but teachers, professors and policemen – all without due process. Not quite the outfit you’d have in mind for a regime described yesterday as an “indispensable partner” by Theresa May.

>Indeed, turn the clock back eight months and our now foreign secretary was slating the Turkish president. Yet Boris Johnson has fallen unusually silent – refusing to call Erdoğan out on his shocking crimes. There is a pattern here: ministers pursuing business deals on the international stage at odds with Britain’s best traditions and values.

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NewsHound

WATCH: Alistair Carmichael: The British people need to mark Theresa May’s homework

By NewsHound | Fri 27th January 2017 - 11:35 am

Alistair Carmichael gave an interview to the Daily Politics this week in which he outlined the case for a referendum on the Brexit deal.

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NewsHound

Vince Cable launches politics and economics course at the University of Nottingham

By NewsHound | Thu 26th January 2017 - 9:06 am

The Telegraph reports:

The former business secretary Sir Vince Cable is to lead a free online course on politics and economics.

The “Massive Open Online Course” (Mooc) will look at the link between the two subjects, examining the work of major political figures and the economic ideas they adopted.

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NewsHound

LibLInk: Nick Clegg: This is the future – the unstoppable march of machines

By NewsHound | Wed 25th January 2017 - 11:45 am

Nick Clegg’s latest Standard column starts off by setting out a number of current problems. One is very different from the others:

There’s a lot to worry about these days: hard Brexit, Trump’s protectionism, Diego Costa’s future at Chelsea, Putin’s manoeuvres, conflict in the South China Sea, Boris Johnson’s next gaffe, climate change.

It’s another that he focuses on, though. What happens to people as their jobs are replaced by machines. He uses the self-driving truck as an example:

According to one recent report, truck driving and related jobs employ more people than any other job in 29 out of America’s 50 states. It is estimated that there are 8.7 million trucking-related jobs in the US. It is one of the few jobs that still attracts a fairly decent income — about $40,000 (£32,000) a year — without requiring higher academic qualifications. In other words, it’s a precious ingredient in the American Dream: a dependable job, accessible to everyone.

It is a question of when, not if, American highways will be crisscrossed by thousands of similar self-driving trucks. And what then for the millions of truck drivers, their families and their communities? An economic earthquake, that’s what, which could leave millions of people out of work.

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NewsHound

ICYMI: Nick Clegg’s Andrew Marr interview: Post Brexit trade deals and the cannibalisation of Labour

By NewsHound | Sun 22nd January 2017 - 8:43 pm

Nick Clegg was on the Andrew Marr show today talking about the opportunity that exists for the House of Commons to amend any Article 50 legislation that comes before it, the potential for post-Brexit trade deals (nothing comes close to being as good as what we have at the moment) and the state of the Labour Party. It’s failure to be a decent opposition on the biggest issue to face this country for some time will cost it, says Nick. It’ll be “cannibalised” by UKIP in the north and the Liberal Democrats in the south.

Watch the whole thing courtesy of BBC Politics here.

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NewsHound

From Peter Mannion to Roy Jenkins

By NewsHound | Sun 22nd January 2017 - 2:28 pm

The man who made us all howl with laughter in The Thick of It as Minister Peter Mannion, Roger Allam, has been cast as a real life politician. He will play Roy Jenkins in a forthcoming play about the decision by the Gang of Four Jenkins, Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams and David Owen, to leave Labour and form the SDP. They issued the Limehouse Declaration in January 1981.

From London Theatre :

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NewsHound

Labour lashes out at Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Sat 21st January 2017 - 9:02 am

Remember how, last week, Jeremy Corbyn’s relaunch was such a runaway success. Not even Tony Blair in the early years could gather such positive headlines.

Ok, so maybe that’s not quite how it happened. At least we’re now clear on their policy on freedom of movement. They love immigration and they hate it, depending on who they are talking to.

Labour has stepped up its attacks on the Lib Dems in the last couple of days, presumably because they have to fight two by-elections on 23rd February where the Leave vote will be split 3 ways and we are the only party offering any sort of opposition to the Tories.

But they couldn’t quite manage it competently. The International Business Times was none too chuffed to find its video being used by Jeremy Corbyn, uncredited, to attack Tim Farron.

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NewsHound

Tim Farron tops Guardian front page as Carmichael’s “You’re not an opposition” riposte to Thornberry gets biggest Question Time cheer

By NewsHound | Fri 20th January 2017 - 3:58 pm

Last night, Alistair Carmichael took full advantage of the opportunity his last minute addition to the Question Time panel gave him to give both Conservatives and Labour a blast.

Watch him tell off Labour’s Emily Thornberry:

Earlier today, Tim Farron was the top story on the Guardian website as he lambasted Labour’s failure to put up any sort of opposition to the Tories.

In an overt attempt to steal votes from Labour in pro-remain constituencies, Farron said he believed Corbyn had put his party on the wrong side of the biggest political issue in a generation and was struggling because his MPs were increasingly split on how to respond.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron: Whether you are Leave or Remain, Theresa May just betrayed you on Brexit

By NewsHound | Wed 18th January 2017 - 10:51 am

Tim Farron wrote a long response to Theresa May’s speech yesterday for the Guardian. Here are some of the highlights;

The new Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, himself commented that May’s words could have come straight from a Ukip party conference speech. Farage and Nuttall might like to convince themselves that the referendum was an endorsement of their nationalist, populist politics, but that is an injustice to most of the British people who voted leave. Pursuing Ukip’s warped vision will not only have severe consequences on our economy, it will also severely damage our standing in the world.

A reckless exit from the

…

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NewsHound

LibLInk: Paddy Ashdown: Theresa May’s Brexit is not what people voted for. They deserve another say

By NewsHound | Wed 18th January 2017 - 8:55 am

Paddy Ashdown set out his view of Theresa May’s Brexit speech in a typically blistering article in the Independent:

Nobody voted, he says, for the Britain the Tories have planned, as revealed by Phlilip Hammond over the weekend:

Last weekend in Germany, Chancellor Philip Hammond blurted out the truth about the course May has chosen. Retain the closest economic links with the EU, he said, and Britain will remain a broadly European-style nation. If we cast off all our European moorings and head for the open sea, we risk having to turn ourselves into a low-tax, no-regulation, cheap-labour equivalent of Singapore. Then, among other things we have come to take for granted and enjoy in our country, we would say goodbye to workplace rights, the welfare state as we know it, policies to protect our environment and European style protections for our civil liberties.

The people should have their say on this, he says (unsurprisingly)

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NewsHound

“A slightly erratic grip on the truth sometimes….” Who was Nick Clegg talking about

By NewsHound | Tue 17th January 2017 - 11:31 pm

An interesting interview with Nick Clegg appears on the Huffington Post. Watch the video clips here to find out his views on Russia, the dynamics of President Trump and what he refers to as “Brexit by Daily Mail.”

He also outlines what he would have brought to the Remain campaign and is pretty caustic about George Osborne and David Cameron.

The answer to the question in the headline is Michael Gove, most recently pictured doing a very obsequious thumbs up next to Donald Trump. Listen to find out what else Nick thinks the two have in common.

And, of course, his well …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tom Brake: Why the Liberal Democrats won’t stand aside in Copeland

By NewsHound | Sat 14th January 2017 - 12:56 pm

In an article for the New Statesman, Tom Brake explains why the Liberal Democrats will be fighting the Copeland candidate with our excellent candidate, Rebecca Hanson. The brief summary is that you can’t have a “Progressive Alliance” with a party that isn’t very progressive. Labour’s approach to Brexit is something that we could not support.

But ultimately we will not help progressive politics if we stand aside for Corbyn’s Labour, which would merely give the left false hope that someone of the hard left could become Prime Minister. To us, a Eurosceptic statist such as Corbyn is not even progressive. By doing well ourselves, the Lib Dems will strengthen the hand of Labour moderates to seize back control of their party, or else leave it entirely. Only then will re-alignment be back on the agenda.

Brexit changes everything. So, whatever you thought of the Coalition or the Lib Dems, think again: if you are a progressive, you need Europe – and the Lib Dems are the only party fighting for your European future.

He also reminds readers how Jeremy Corbyn refused to share a platform with Tim Farron during the referendum to highlight how the EU protects workers’ rights.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg: Blaming liberalism for the world’s political turmoil is just too easy

By NewsHound | Fri 13th January 2017 - 10:20 am

A powerful riposte from Nick Clegg to those who blame liberalism for all the evils of the world:

My schoolboy history taught me that while Mill was a man of the 19th century he also espoused remarkably progressive causes — free speech, feminism, the environment and workers’ councils. My guess is if he was alive today he’d be on the barricades in favour of a mass, state-funded housing programme while defending Britain’s long tradition of internationalism, including our place in Europe.

But I would say that, wouldn’t I? For much of my political career people have either ignored liberalism, falsely espoused …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Alistair Carmichael: Will Labour moderates seize the moment?

By NewsHound | Wed 4th January 2017 - 12:34 pm

In an article for the Telegraph (which the sub-editors did not headline in a particularly helpful way), Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael called on Labour moderates to work with others who share the aim of securing the UK’s place in the single market and who want to see a successful economy which gives more money to invest in public services.

First of all, he states that the party really is over for Labour:

First, as this summer’s leadership election made clear, they do not even have a Neil Kinnock, let alone a Tony Blair. The Corbyn grip on Labour is stronger than ever, and so the party will continue to look inwards not outwards to voters.

Secondly, Labour then could look to Scotland and the North for both raw numbers and talent. No longer.

So as they view their prospects for 2017, Labour MPs face some unpalatable but necessary decisions. The Fabian estimate of Labour reduced to 150 seats may turn out to be optimistic. Its leader is more interested in ideological purity than winning elections, and, challenged by identity politics in its heartlands, Labour is as far from power as it was under Michael Foot. This time, however, there is no way back. Our first past the post electoral system – long supported by Labour – now threatens to consume them.

Labour, he says, is a “road block” to progress.

He calls on those in the Labour Party who don’t agree with its current direction to work with us:

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NewsHound

Willie Rennie talks about solutions to poverty, poor housing and low wages

By NewsHound | Wed 28th December 2016 - 8:55 am

Holyrood Magazine has been asking Scottish political leaders what they would do to tackle poverty. Here’s his ambitious answer to a question about whether the Scottish Government’s child poverty targets (less than 10% in relative poverty and 5% in absolute poverty by 2030) were acceptable:

Any child in poverty is unacceptable and any government should be working towards eradicating poverty altogether. Obviously, that is quite a challenge but we should set ourselves to be that ambitious. ​

And if we had to pay more taxes to ensure that? His answer isn’t surprising given that he’s the only Scottish leader to propose a rise in income tax for a “transformational” investment in education.

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NewsHound

Alex Cole-Hamilton: No oaths please, we’re British

By NewsHound | Wed 21st December 2016 - 8:55 am

Edinburgh Western MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton wrote a blistering column in yesterday’s Daily Record in which he lambasted the suggestion that public officials in this country should swear an oath. It’s as passionate and liberal as you would expect from Alex.

Some of the highlights:

I’m sorry, but ask anyone associated with the Black Lives Matter campaign in the States (a country which makes its citizens swear allegiance before they draw breath in the morning) whether such a pledge makes any difference to racial harmony…

…This is the latest frontier in a new kind of politics in this country, a politics of nationalism and identity driven by a right wing tabloid press which seems to harness and inflate the darkest public perceptions around immigration and radicalisation…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Roger Roberts: The future of our European citizenship

By NewsHound | Wed 14th December 2016 - 1:25 pm

Roger Roberts is pressing the government on the future of European citizenship this afternoon in a question in the House of Lords.

In an article for Politics Home, he sets out the issues at stake:

Our citizenship as members of the EU, is totally dependent upon the United Kingdom remaining a member of the EU. Once that is lost we, also, are denied that citizenship. There is a move in the EU Parliament to make citizenship available on an individual basis. We apply, pay our fee, and are granted a form of EU citizenship. The problem is that there can be few advantages – how does one person enjoy EU laws on Climate change and his neighbour not? How does one member of the family enjoy freedom of travel whilst the rest are left standing at the airport?

Over half the UK’s population were born after the UK joined the Union in January 1973. They were born as citizens of the EU – a birth right. The rest of us, already born, acquired that citizenship. Now that status risks being torn away from us. That is why I am raising this with the Government today. There is much that is still unclear about the Government’s plans for Brexit but they should clarify the position of the millions of people born 1973 that have always been European.

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NewsHound

Vince back in the spotlight as strongest voice opposing Sky takeover

By NewsHound | Sun 11th December 2016 - 11:46 am

It’s almost exactly six years since Vince Cable was taken off the Sky merger case after he was secretly recorded saying that he had declared war on Rupert Murdoch.” History shows that he was right then and he has been vocally opposing the latest attempt by Murdoch’s Fox to take control of Sky.

Coincidentally, before the takeover hit the headlines, Vince gave a lecture in which he explored the relationship between media ownership and plurality of opinion and explained why it mattered:

Whatever our views about particular opinions expressed in the press and about particular owners, the health of the press and of democracy itself depends on there being a range of independent providers: in other words, plurality as opposed to competition which may be intense but fails to provide a range of competing opinions and information sources. Pluraity matters in the words of the Journal of Media Law because “where a few firms dominate the media landscape they exercise considerable control — there is now a convincing body of evidence to suggest that particular corporate or political affiliates can lead to media bias or the suppression of information.” Ofcom, the media regulator, has stressed the importance of plurality “by preventing too much influence over the political process.”

Later on, he talked about the need for more “checks and balances” to prevent future scandals:

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NewsHound

Paddick: Police conduct in exploiting victims “totally unacceptable”

By NewsHound | Thu 8th December 2016 - 9:23 am

Responding to a report which found hundreds of police officers have been accused of abusing their position to sexually exploit people, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary and former senior police chief Brian Paddick said:

It is totally unacceptable that anyone in a position of power should abuse their position.

When those people are police officers exploiting people when they are at their most vulnerable, particularly women who are the victims of domestic violence and sexual offences, it is despicable.

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NewsHound

Tim Farron responds to the election of Donald Trump

By NewsHound | Wed 9th November 2016 - 11:13 am

Commenting on the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said:

Liberal values of moderation, freedom, respect for the rule of law, openness and concern for one another can no longer be taken for granted. In the United States last night, those values were defeated.

But those values are vital if we are to live together in peace, prosperity and freedom.

Those of us who care passionately for those liberal values need to fight for them, to win the arguments, to inspire new generations to the great and historic cause of

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | 31 Comments
NewsHound

ALDE MEP Charles Goerens proposes EU citizenship for members of former Member States

By NewsHound | Wed 9th November 2016 - 8:47 am

It looks as if it isn’t just the Liberal Democrats who are keen to remain within the European Union. Charles Goerens, a member of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament from Luxembourg, has suggested that there might be scope for those British citizens who wish to be part of the Union to obtain associate citizenship.

He has submitted an amendment to a draft report from Guy Verhofstadt on “Possible evolutions of and adjustments to the current institutional set-up of the European Union”, which reads;

Advocates to insert in the Treaties a European associate citizenship for those who feel and wish to

…

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NewsHound

European liberals to debate what comes after Brexit

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd November 2016 - 10:39 am

alde-congress-2016Yesterday, members of the Party’s delegation to next month’s ALDE Party Congress in Warsaw, Poland, met to discuss the draft resolutions as submitted from liberal parties across the European Union and beyond.

Naturally, there will be much discussion on the future of the European Union post-Brexit, and resolutions on the subject have been submitted not only by the Liberal Democrats, but by our sister parties in Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden, amongst others. It is noteworthy that Liberalerna (Sweden) call for;

a balanced deal for both the EU and the UK… which does

…

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‘What the hell is going on?’ – Farron asks as reports say Hammond briefly given number 2 job because of a typo

By NewsHound | Sat 29th October 2016 - 1:15 pm

Commenting in response to reports that Philip Hammond was given the job of First Secretary of State because of a typo, Tim Farron said:

Alistair Carmichael has only been in his job for a single evening and already he’s seen off a Government Minister.

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Party sets up review of culture and processes focusing on race and ethnicity

By NewsHound | Fri 28th October 2016 - 9:34 am

The Liberal Democrats are committed to better representing the communities they seek to serve and have voted through a raft of measures, including the Diversity Quotas and Electing Diverse MP’s motions passed by members at Federal Conference in York and Brighton this year.

As part of the party’s ongoing commitment to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society; an independent review which will focus on the issues and/or barriers faced by BAME members and supporters has been commissioned by the Federal Executive. This review should help the party determine what and where the issues are and how we take action in this specific area.

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Tim Farron reacts to UKIP’s endorsement of Zac Goldsmith

By NewsHound | Thu 27th October 2016 - 4:49 pm

Following UKIP’s endorsement of Zac Goldsmith in the Richmond Park by-election, Tim Farron commented:

Zac Goldsmith claimed Brexit has nothing to do with this by-election. The very public endorsement he has picked up from the party of Nigel Farage nails that lie.

Zac Goldsmith was already the Conservative Party candidate. Now he is also the UKIP candidate. His campaign is the Nigel and Zac show.

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