Tim Farron has been campaigning for our by-election candidates, Rebecca Hanson in Copeland and Dr Zulfiqar Ali in Stoke-on Trent Central.

His day started in Keswick where he and Rebecca met a Flood Action Group:

#CopelandByElection #LibDemFightback As an experienced flooding Councillor I’d be proud to support Keswick Flood action group as MP pic.twitter.com/E6ZAIoS5VP

— Rebecca Hanson (@hanson4copeland) February 14, 2017

From  the Times and Star reports:

The Westmorland and Lonsdale MP believes that Mrs Hanson is an “astonishingly good” candidate for Copeland.

He said: “Her track record for campaigning on health service issues is known across the constituency and is known for being utterly authentic.

“This is not someone who is jumping on the bandwagon.

“What you get in Rebecca is someone who fights the corner of all the Copeland communities and makes clear that they may be beautiful places but they are also tough places where there is real need.

“We are also the only party fighting against a hard Brexit and the move out of the single market that wasn’t on the ballot paper.

“The majority of British people wanted to be in the single market so to do that without consulting them is just wrong.”

Mrs Hanson expects the campaign to ramp up over the weekend ahead of the by-election next Thursday.

She said: “I’ve loved every single second of it so far.

“I love building democracy, communicating with people and coming to people who are feeling disillusioned at politics and democracy because when I talk to people all that melts away.

Great to support @DrzulfialiAli and @StokeLibDems here in #StokeOnTrentCentral pic.twitter.com/LS6EurImRP

— Tim Farron (@timfarron) February 14, 2017

He then went to Stoke-on-Trent where, after a brief visit to HQ, he and Zulfiqar visited a local holiday company where he spoke of the risk Hard Brexit posed to jobs in the area as the Stoke Sentinel reports:

But he claimed that the future prosperity of Stoke-on-Trent would be jeopardised by a ‘hard’ Brexit. The Lib Dems are campaigning for Britain to stay in the Single Market.

Mr Farron said: “This is a great example of a local business run by local people in the heart of the country. It shows how Stoke-on-Trent’s industrial heritage is being turned into a really effective tourism offer that attracts people from around the country.

“We know that local businesses like this will make the best of whatever comes, but being outside the Single Market will mean higher prices for everyone, fewer jobs and Britain not being as prosperous as it would have been otherwise.”

Dr Ali said that despite 70 per cent of Stoke-on-Trent voters backing Leave in the referendum, there were many who now had concerns.

He said: “I have spoken to people on the doorstep, including those who have voted to leave, but when you ask them whether they got the right information, they say they didn’t. It’s very clear that it wasn’t the right information.

“I’d love it if our hospital was going to get some of the extra £350 million a week that was promised, but it’s not going to come.”

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