Opposition parties met today to talk strategy for the next stage of the Brexit Drama.
Over the weekend we had seen talk of a potential vote of no confidence this week.
Matthew D’Ancona explained yesterday on Twitter why this would be a mistake.
1. KLAXON ELEPHANT TRAP WARNING: if the SNP tables a vote of no confidence this week – as Johnson has allowed minority Opposition parties to do – it will be doing exactly, to the letter, what he is hoping for…
Jo Swinson has always been clear we can’t risk an election until we are certain that the threat of no deal on 31st October has been gone and it appears that she won the day.
Lib Dem MPs held a photocall outside the Commons and this is what Jo had to say:
"It's important that we don't go for a precipitous vote of no confidence that would increase the risk of a No Deal Brexit & play into Boris Johnson's hands." – @joswinson
Here is Jo Swinson’s message for the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah, emphasising that the Liberal Democrats stand with those facing hatred and discrimination.
Wishing everybody celebrating Rosh Hashanah a happy, peaceful and joyous celebration. Shana Tova! pic.twitter.com/a8JIblV391
By Chris Bowers
| Sun 29th September 2019 - 9:34 am
Boris Johnson has boxed himself into a corner – but he may not be the only one.
The prime minister has got himself into a situation where, it appears, he either has to break his promise to take us out of the EU on 31 October or break the law in terms of ignoring – or circumventing – the Benn Act that stops a no-deal Brexit. But circumventing may be an option for him; certainly the political commentators are far from confident that the Benn Act is watertight, and that at least one loophole exists.
Hence all the discussion about a vote of no confidence this week, as this may be the only way to guarantee that we avoid a No-Deal Brexit. But have our MPs perhaps also boxed themselves into a corner with their commitment to doing anything to avoiding a No-Deal Brexit yet at the same time committing not to prop up a Corbyn-led government, even a short-term one?
If the SNP and Labour are willing to support a motion of no confidence this week, it’s pretty certain the Plaid MPs and Caroline Lucas will follow suit. That would just leave the Liberal Democrats plus a handful of Independents – enoughto make the difference between success and failure.
There is a way out of this for Jo Swinson. It is for her to take the following position:
Responding to the Supreme Court ruling that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson said:
The court have found what we all knew all along, Boris Johnson has again proven he is not fit to be Prime Minister.
This shutdown was an unlawful act designed to stop Parliament doing its job and holding the Government to account. Given this verdict, Parliament should be sitting so that we can continue to question the Conservative Government on their disastrous Brexit plans.
This verdict has been unanimously agreed by experienced judges who have considered the
By Caron Lindsay
| Tue 24th September 2019 - 7:45 am
I think the Lib Dems need to declare the cost of staging Labour Conference as an election expense
So said a Labour friend of mine on Twitter in deep frustration at his party’s failure to unequivocally back Remain in chaotic scenes yesterday.
I genuinely feel for my friends in Labour who are horrified at what their party is doing. Some, like Alastair Campbell, voted Lib Dem in the European elections. I hope that they will feel able to do so at the forthcoming General Election, even if they don’t want to say so out loud.
When a party gets it as badly wrong on the major issue of the day, the chances are that it will be punished at the ballot box and two reports suggest that this is exactly the fate awaiting Labour candidates.
And what is more bizarre is that it’s Labour’s own internal polling that is predicting the disaster.
The Scotsman reports that we and the SNP will be the beneficiaries of a Labour wipeout in Scotland:
Across the UK, only 58.7 per cent of 2017 Labour voters would stick with the party under those circumstances. The Lib Dems would take 19 per cent of the 2017 Labour vote, with 7.4 per cent going to the Greens, 3.5 per cent to the SNP, and 0.7 per cent to Plaid Cymru.
The figures are even worse in Scotland, where just 49.2 per cent of 2017 Labour voters would stick with the party. The SNP would take a fifth of Labour’s vote at the last election, with 15% going to the Lib Dems, 6% to the Brexit Party, and 3% to the Conservatives.
Responding to the news from Labour Party conference that it would not back Remain in a People’s Vote, under the guidance of Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson said:
Jeremy Corbyn has again shown a total lack of leadership on Brexit and settled on yet another fudge on the biggest issue facing our country. Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly had the opportunity to put the full force of the Labour behind a Remain position, but he has once again shown today that he is a Brexiteer at heart.
He is determined to negotiate a Brexit deal if Labour win an election, despite all the evidence that there is no Brexit deal that is good for our economy, our NHS and our security. By refusing to say how the Labour Party would campaign in a second referendum, Jeremy Corbyn is letting down the millions of people who want to see the UK remain in the EU.
By Caron Lindsay
| Sat 21st September 2019 - 1:00 pm
Jo Swinson has talked to Alastair Campbell for GQ magazine. They met twice. Once on 27th August and then after the Parliamentary drama on 3-4 September.
You can watch the whole thing on You Tube:
The written transcript is here. but you need to watch the video to get the whole thing.
It’s well worth 47 minutes of your time to see a thoughtful conversation which ranges from Brexit to Scottish independence and why people are turning to the Liberal Democrats:
Tens of thousands joined the Lib Dems since the start of May because people want someone that speaks to those small “l” liberal values for opportunity, internationalism, equality, fairness, treating people as individuals.
The biggest reason she can’t deal with Boris:
I don’t think he cares! I think he really doesn’t care. What he did in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe just makes me furious. He doesn’t seem to show any kind of remorse or feel bad about it – he says he feels anguish, but he shows no evidence of it whatsoever. All he cares about is Boris Johnson and becoming prime minister and he was prepared to say whatever it took to get him into Number Ten. One of the reasons I have stood for leadership of my party is that I think the public needs a better choice. At the next election, the offer of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn is not good enough. That’s why I’ve set out ambitious plans for the Liberal Democrats, that we are aiming for government and I am a candidate for prime minister, because I think the country needs us to be doing that.
And why she thinks she is the best candidate for PM:
When I joined the Liberal Democrats I didn’t think that I would be sitting here today and talking about potentially becoming prime minister and running for that, but when I look at Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, hand on heart, I am very confident I could do a better job than either of them. We have got a no-deal Brexit around the corner; we have a climate emergency that we have less than 12 years to tackle; we have got poverty in our communities; we have real problems with our politics more generally. I genuinely feel we need to make sure that the Liberal Democrats can be that home for people with liberal values who want and demand and deserve something better than either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn.
Alastair then makes the mistake of mentioning how difficult it must be for her because she has young kids:
AC: That feels very hard to me. Two young children, including your baby, taking on the leadership of a party.
JS: Hang on, did Tony Blair not have a baby when he was prime minister, I seem to recall?
AC: He did.
JS: Yeah. I mean, men do do this. It has been known.
When they met on 6th September, Alastair asked Jo if she thought Boris Johnson had fascist tendencies:
I am not going to put that label on him. You have to be careful with language. But I found the imagery of that speech in front of police officers, where he was effectively saying he might not obey the rule of law, very worrying. The juxtaposition was quite sinister. It felt rather authoritarian.
There was an interesting discussion about the risks of splitting the opposition vote:
The room was packed ten minutes before it was due to start to the extent that Shelter’s own Policy Director Chris Wood couldn’t get in.
Later that day, at another meeting, for the Smith Institute and the Affordable Housing Commission, there was, again, standing room only.
I had been a bit worried, to be honest, when we booked a huge room for our fringe meeting “What would you sacrifice to save the planet?” Paul Walter and I spent that one standing at the back because there were no seats left.
By Caron Lindsay
| Wed 18th September 2019 - 8:15 am
Given that we have 18 MPs right now, you wouldn’t expect the odds on the Liberal Democrats being the biggest party in the House of Commons to be that good.
Maybe 100-1, maybe 50-1 at best.
Well, not so much.
Look here and you’ll see a range between 9-1 and 16-1.
That reflects the fact that we have left Bournemouth with a clear path ahead.
We know that our primary objective at the moment is to stop Brexit in order to make creating the more caring, more equal society that we want to see so much easier.
We are clear that if the Liberal Democrats win a majority at the next General Election before we have left the European Union, the very first thing that Jo Swinson will do if she enters Downing Street as Prime Minister, before she even puts the kettle on, will be to revoke Article 50.
The political earthquake that it would take for us to go from 18 seats to 326 would be more than sufficient mandate.
If we don’t win an overall majority, we would go for a people’s vote with a Brexit option and the option to Remain.
Over the last few days, Jo Swinson has shown herself to be a calm, capable, infectiously enthusiastic, likeable and determined leader, surrounded by a talented team.
She has been in the job for less than 2 months and already she tops the popularity ratings.
I was “up in the gods” for Jo’s speech this afternoon in Bournemouth.
The first thing to say is that the speech seemed to me to be visually very powerful. Jo is a commanding, strong presence on stage. She stands centre stage, with no lectern or notes, barely glancing visibly at the distant autocues. Her posture and gestures are bold and decisive.
And her speech was bold and decisive.
In the round, I thought her speech was a barnstormer.
By Paul Walter
| Sat 14th September 2019 - 9:08 pm
Embed from Getty Images
I have been staggering along to more conference rallies than I care to remember. But tonight’s conference opener was the most thrilling rally I have been to.
Hard on the heels of Sal’s fantastic presidential swan song, Tim Farron was on fire as he started it.
By Caron Lindsay
| Sat 14th September 2019 - 11:09 am
It was a truly impressive site as Jo Swinson led a group including newly elected MEPs, key seat candidates and other key party figures such as Isabelle Parasram, our Vice President BAME down the hill in the sunshine towards the Conference Centre.
Shaffaq Mohammed, Yorkshire and the Humber MEP and HazelGrove PPC Lisa Smart were on either side of her in a group that included our own Kirsten Johnson as PPC for North Devon and Wendy Chamberlain, who is challenging for the most marginal seat in the country.
Parliament shutdown will not silence Lib Dem campaign to stop Brexit
Responding to Boris Johnson shutting down parliament, Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson said:
The Liberal Democrats, along with other opposition parties, voted against the Prime Minister’s election this evening. We will not allow him to use an election to sneak through a dangerous No Deal Brexit, for which he has no mandate.
We relish the chance to take on Boris Johnson in an election, but only once Article 50 has been extended. And thanks to cross-party legislation, the Prime Minister must request an extension to Article 50 rather than crash us
Swinson: Rudd resignation another blow to Boris Johnson
Responding to the news that Amber Rudd has quit both the cabinet and the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson said:
Amber Rudd’s resignation is yet another blow to Boris Johnson and his reckless plans to crash the country out of Europe without a deal. His disregard for the country’s interest and those who are meant to be his colleagues is symbolic of how broken our politics has become.
As this Government continues to decay, the need and urgency to stop Brexit cannot be clearer – we need a people’s vote with the option
Willie Rennie writes for the Herald, saying that the Liberal Democrats can win big in the coming election because we have the solutions to the current chaos.
He explains why we have to wait a few weeks to have that election:
So we want an election before the end of the year but I’m afraid we can’t trust the Prime Minister to abide by the law of the land and request an extension to negotiations with Europe. So we need to hold his feet to the fire until he does and until we have seen an end to the no deal aspirations of this reckless Prime Minister. That means waiting until November before we choose a new Parliament.
Jo offers fresh leadership at a time of crisis and we can stop Brexit.
It’s not necessary or desirable to break up the UK in response to the possible break from the European Union because we have another way. We can stop Brexit together across the UK.
I draw hope from millions who marched in London to stop Brexit or the six million who signed up to revoke Article 50, or the hundreds of thousands of people who backed the Liberal Democrats in the European Elections.
Of course, she could just be introducing her boys to one of the best films of all time.
If she is, she could take inspiration from this song which should be our anthem in the weeks leading up to the expected General Election. Certainly, Jo is determined to absolutely go for it, with no limit to our ambitions.
Twice this week, Boris Johnson has used sexist insults. In deeply dignified and mature behaviour for a Prime Minister, he called Jeremy Corbyn a “big girl’s blouse” the other day. And now we discover he called David Cameron a “girly swot.”
This is how Jo Swinson responded.
First it was ‘big girl’s blouse’ and now it’s ‘girly swot’. Boris Johnson thinks being a woman is a weakness. He’s going to find out it isn’t. https://t.co/o8UNztxrlr
She took the fight for liberal values to him the other day and he was all over the place as a result. Jo is usually very prepared about what she is going to say, but she was clearly furious with his dismissive answer when challenged on his dangerous racism and she handed his backside to him on a plate.
Jo is fired up and ready to go when the inevitable election eventually comes along, after she and others have protected the country from government shenanigans which could force no deal on us.
Gosh, that’s embarrassing. Yesterday evening, I came home from a meeting of my County Association of Local Councils and felt the urge to both write it up for my blog and produce a report for my Parish Council and clean forgot about Liberal Democrat Voice. And so, you get a bumper(ish) edition at the end of what has been an utterly bewildering week…
Luciana Berger MP joins the Liberal Democrats (covered here)
Lib Dem membership rises to over 120,000
Bill to stop no-deal passes through the Lords
Lib Dem membership rises to over 120,000
The Liberal Democrats have today announced that there are
I am still not sure how I feel about my introducing politics to my twelve-year-old daughter. I don’t like the idea of indoctrination, and despite being open about my views, I try to balance them with what the opposing ideas are, so she doesn’t just take what I say as gospel.
It’s tricky. If I think “I’m right”, shouldn’t I teach her what “is right”? Yet, my father did not. A Labour man his whole life, and I barely knew it till he died. They did not shelter us from it. My parents allowed us to know the ideas and make our own choices. I want to try to do that for my daughter.
One thing I will not offer an “alternative view” for is the need for civilised discourse, the need to agree to disagree and make friendships across party-lines. She came home from school a little envious of her environmentally woke friends, who had chosen the subject for their end of primary school talks. We talked a while about the issues she thought important. Gender was chief amongst them.
I made the mistake of only really knowing about strong legal women, and it ended up tilting to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (we’d seen On the Basis of Sex – a Hollywood biopic about the second Supreme Court Justice –a month prior) and – to include the crossing-divides theme – Sandra Day O’Connor, of whom we knew nothing.
In the end it was a little convoluted and rushed – how to explain Constitutional Law and the Separation of Powers, gender equality and civilised debate in modern politics in 5-7 minutes was perhaps an editorial screw up on my part. But she understood it. Better, she came up with most of it herself. Did her own research and typed her own speech. It was very important to include SDC’s love of beef jerky because it showed she grew up on a ranch and was strong. Also RBG’s love of opera. Obviously.
Like any parent, I got a sting of disappointment for her when it didn’t get selected for their assembly; but I thought she’d gained a lot from it and was proud of herself. And more sure of herself, as a young woman.
Time to put Liberal Democrat Voice to bed for the night, unlike our Parliamentary Party in the Lords, who are preparing for a long night of voting to stop Conservatives filibustering.
It’s been a dramatic day in Westminster, although there seem to be no shortage of those these days. But the media operations continues regardless…
Kicking the can down the road will not prevent Windrush-style scandal for EU citizens
Lib Dems: We have a duty to stand with the people of Hong Kong
By Caron Lindsay
| Wed 4th September 2019 - 10:00 pm
Today saw Jo Swinson’s first PMQs as leader against our incompetent and awful Prime Minister. She had intended to ask about a constituent’s mother who was having a hell of a time getting settled status despite living in this country for almost half a century.
Just before the end of PMQs, Slough MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi tackled the Prime Minister about his awful column in which he said horrific things about Muslim women. It’s worth remembering that these comments are not consequence free. Every woman of colour I know, whether she wears a hijab or not, noticed an increase in the racist, islamophobic crap they have to put up with every single day after he wrote that.
Unfortunately the embedding feature on Parliament TV isn’t working right now. Here’s a small clip:
"Our friends, colleagues and neighbours deserve better than Boris Johnson's failures and his carelessness with language." – @joswinson at today's #PMQS.
The Prime Minister’s response to the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) was appalling. An apology was required, rather than some kind of justification that there is ever any acceptable context for remarks such as the Prime Minister made in that column. He is the Prime Minister of our country. His words carry weight and he has to be more careful with what he says. My constituent Kristin is afraid because her mum, a European citizen, has been struggling to get settled status after 45 years in this country. Our friends, colleagues and neighbours deserve better than his failures and carelessness with language.
The Prime Minister
In the case of his constituent Kristin—
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
His?
The Prime Minister
Her constituent Kristin—if she has indeed been here for 45 years, and I am sure she has—should be automatically eligible for settled status. Clearly, it is a difficult case, but the answer is for the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) to bring it to the Home Secretary, and I am sure we can sort it out.
The text alone doesn’t capture how utterly floored Johnson was by Jo’s question. It’s like a surprise to him that he isn’t universally loved.
By Caron Lindsay
| Tue 3rd September 2019 - 11:45 pm
Jo Swinson’s reaction to the defeat of the government by 27 votes tonight:
The attempt to shut down Parliament by Boris Johnson is authoritarian and anti-democratic. The fact that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom wants to silence the people and their representatives shows that Boris Johnson will pursue Brexit at any cost, even at the cost of our democracy.
“That is why the Liberal Democrats, along with a majority of MPs in the House of Commons, have voted to take control of the order paper tomorrow.
Readers may have noticed that the news of Phillip Lee’s defection was fast-tracked onto our front page earlier this afternoon, but his dramatic move to the Liberal Democrat benches shouldn’t overshadow the good news story that was Jane Dodds’s arrival on our benches, especially given how many Liberal Democrat Voice readers lent a hand in Brecon and Radnorshire…
HS2 Should not be funded with a ‘blank cheque’
In response to reports that HS2 could be delayed for up to seven years, with an additional estimated cost of over £20bn, former Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:
A Prime Minister with no mandate intends to shut down Parliament to pursue a reckless agenda which could lead to food and medicine shortages. He threatens to end the careers of anyone on his side who defies him.
No, not the plot of some fanciful work of fiction I read on holiday. Quite possibly the plot of a film in a few years time.
There is a surreal feeling about what’s happening at the moment. A colleague of mine commented when we heard that Conservative MPs were being summoned to the garden of Downing Street that some of the rebels may not be allowed to leave.
An emergency debate today will lead to a Bill being introduced by the opposition tomorrow. That bill will compel the PM to ask for an extension to Article 50 to the end of January. If the European Council ask for it to be to a different date, MPs will have the chance to accept or reject that date.
Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats, have been heavily involved in planning over the Summer. Our aim is ultimately to stop Brexit by means of a People’s Vote. That is something that was supported by 280 MPs the last time it was debated.
Boris Johnson knows that there is a good chance that this legislation will pass. It was pretty extraordinary to see Michael Gove refuse to confirm that the Government would abide by this new law.
Last night’s ultimatum, when he threw a general election into the mix, looks like it may not succeed. The only way an election can be called is if Labour votes for it and it looks from what their people are saying that they will resist that, at least in the short term. My worry is that an election called for 14th could be delayed to 31st once Parliament is dissolved, when it’s too late to do anything to avert no deal, by a Prime Minister who is not exactly known for keeping his word.
This is a hugely anxious time for anyone with a liberal mindset. A government taking an increasingly authoritarian, anti-democratic course needs to be stopped. Every vote is going to shred our nerves and send our blood pressure through the roof. A longer term objective surely has to be to end the 15 minutes of drama that goes along with every Commons vote. Pressing a button would end that agony.
Today the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, has written to Her Majesty the Queen to ask for a meeting following the reports that the Government is expected to suspend Parliament from mid-September.
Responding to the reports that the Government is expected to ask the Queen to suspend Parliament from mid-September, Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson said:
Shutting down Parliament would be an act of cowardice from Boris Johnson. He knows the people would not choose a No Deal and that elected representatives wouldn’t allow it. He is trying to stifle their voices.
By suspending Parliament to force through a No Deal, Boris Johnson and the Government would remove the voice of the people at the most important time. It is a dangerous and unacceptable course of action which the Liberal Democrats will strongly oppose.
Rob Heale We must have more of an emphasis on HOUSING and HEALTH generally. The issue of Leasehold abolition, with the Government apparently prepared to wait 40 Years for...
Jason Connor The Greens, Lib Dems and Conservatives are all standing. They all see sense and believe in democratic choices....
Mick Taylor @Lawrence Cox. To read your comment one might want to believe that the Triple Lock has ensured pensioners have decent pensions. It hasn't and UK state pensions ...
Chloe A Blue Labour response recent events in Hampshire. Well worth a read.
https://www.paulembery.com/p/for-the-race-obsessed-british-state...
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