The Liberal Democrats want to rejoin the European Union, their foreign affairs spokesman has said – despite Sir Ed Davey insisting it was “off the table” for the time being.
Sir Ed, who leads Britain’s fourth-largest party, said this week that voters are not talking about Brexit and that he has focused his party on other issues, including healthcare and sewage.
He has also refused to commit to rejoining the bloc, saying the Liberal Democrats’ focus is on revising existing Brexit arrangements.
But speaking on the first day of the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Layla Moran told a fringe event: “We want to rejoin. We want, as part of it, to get back into the Single Market.
“We recognise that, in order to do that, we have to do stuff before, to get to that relationship. How do we talk about it in a way that doesn’t push people away, so where is that sweet spot?”
Lord Newby, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, told the same discussion: “If we put Europe first and foremost, people will think we are mad.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said the party wanted to be “at the heart of Europe”, but added: “Right now, the priority is to fix the broken relationship with our closest trading partners and get a better deal for our farmers, fishermen and small businesses.”
It came as Guy Verhofstadt, who was the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator and has long opposed British sovereignty, led a protest march in London on Saturday that organisers estimated attracted 3,000 people.
Mr Verhofstadt tweeted
>In London today… with thousands and thousands to call for the return of the UK into the EU after the Brexit disaster !
He was joined by Gina Miller, the high-profile campaigner who masterminded an anti-Brexit legal challenge.
On Saturday morning, Liberal Democrat activists backed a review of military recruitment to ensure “all possible steps” are taken to improve ethnic diversity.
Richard Foord, the party’s defence spokesman, said: “The Army is not even close to being reflective of the society that it exists to defend.
“Last year, just 3 per cent of the officers in the officer corps were accorded as being of ethnic minority background.”
Meanwhile, Tim Farron, the party’s environment spokesman, labelled the free market “our enemy when it comes to solving the housing crisis”.
Urging ministers to pursue “interventionist politics”, he added: “Perversely, the more restrictions and the more parity and the more power planning authorities have, the more likely we are to get housing built.”
On Sunday, activists will vote on a motion calling for a 1p tax on the sale of all new clothes, arguing it would reduce emissions and curb the “fast fashion” industry.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, defended the planned levy, insisting it was a “small price to pay” that would “reduce our emissions and … improve our recycling”.
On Saturday night, Carol Vorderman, the former Countdown presenter, and comedian Steve Coogan addressed the opening conference rally via videolink to support Liberal Democrat calls for electoral reform.
No shit.
Guy Verhoftwat was one of the reasons I chose to vote for Brexit.
LOL
Wasnt there an article just today saying the UK is doing better than Frznce or Germany? Why would they wanna rejoin if that’s true?
I’ve seen polls suggesting a majority of Brits now want to rejoin.
They can’t just test drive leaving the EU and join some number of years later. There needs to be consequence to a country leaving the EU that is more than just “well we tried and didn’t like it, can we come back in?”
They say a generation is 20 – 30 years. That seems reasonable. Who knows it could work out for them in that time.
If 99% of all Brits would want to join EU again and they decide to go back, how long would it take for them to be a member?
It is time to stop talking about this and accept the outcome. The UK is out. I doubt the UK will ever rejoin, since they would lose their currency and other stuff that was possible before leaving the EU.
Whatever they want, I don’t think “we” (as the EU citizens) would fall for that. Out is out. Come back 30 years from now and then maybe we’ll think about it.
To be fair to the Lib Dems, they’ve been the biggest party that unequivocally supported Remain. They even managed to get 2nd place in the UK’s last European election. What could’ve been avoided if Labour didn’t suck that hard.
This is what’s known as “talking out of both sides of your mouth”.
Can we trade them for hungary?
Who is Ed Davey? And why does he have so much say in this?
We don’t want you to rejoin us. Maybe you guys could finally just kiss the USA and stop living the lie. We just want you to be happy…but you know…not with us.
>It came as Guy Verhofstadt, who was the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator and has long opposed British sovereignty,
I do expect better from The Daily Telegraph’s reporting.
First party to announce NOTHING ELSE but “we will rejoin the EU” gets my vote.
And I don’t trust any single political party or politician enough to think that it would even actually happen then, but I would vote for the intention.
Lib Dems already pussied out during the time they could have made a difference and pulled all their anti-Brexit stance right at the crucial moment, and for what? To cling on to a pittance of votes? Twits.
At the moment, there is absolutely no party representing rejoining available to me.
And I would even hold them blameless if it meant a few years of hardship and lots of pissing about trying to get back in, because it was no easy thing to achieve in the first place, and now they’re clearing up another party’s shit so it will be difficult.
But without any sincere backing of the concept they can sing for my vote. If they’d been anti-Brexit, pro-Rejoin all along and stuck with that, I’d at least have granted them a bit of integrity. Now they just look like “we go where we think the vote is” and keep getting it wrong.
Just give the UK a Norway type deal because thats all they can be trusted with and handle. Make them obidient rule takers until they are educated enough to apreciate the EU.
19 comments
The Liberal Democrats want to rejoin the European Union, their foreign affairs spokesman has said – despite Sir Ed Davey insisting it was “off the table” for the time being.
Sir Ed, who leads Britain’s fourth-largest party, said this week that voters are not talking about Brexit and that he has focused his party on other issues, including healthcare and sewage.
He has also refused to commit to rejoining the bloc, saying the Liberal Democrats’ focus is on revising existing Brexit arrangements.
But speaking on the first day of the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Layla Moran told a fringe event: “We want to rejoin. We want, as part of it, to get back into the Single Market.
“We recognise that, in order to do that, we have to do stuff before, to get to that relationship. How do we talk about it in a way that doesn’t push people away, so where is that sweet spot?”
Lord Newby, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, told the same discussion: “If we put Europe first and foremost, people will think we are mad.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said the party wanted to be “at the heart of Europe”, but added: “Right now, the priority is to fix the broken relationship with our closest trading partners and get a better deal for our farmers, fishermen and small businesses.”
It came as Guy Verhofstadt, who was the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator and has long opposed British sovereignty, led a protest march in London on Saturday that organisers estimated attracted 3,000 people.
Mr Verhofstadt tweeted
>In London today… with thousands and thousands to call for the return of the UK into the EU after the Brexit disaster !
https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/status/1705583313409151425
He was joined by Gina Miller, the high-profile campaigner who masterminded an anti-Brexit legal challenge.
On Saturday morning, Liberal Democrat activists backed a review of military recruitment to ensure “all possible steps” are taken to improve ethnic diversity.
Richard Foord, the party’s defence spokesman, said: “The Army is not even close to being reflective of the society that it exists to defend.
“Last year, just 3 per cent of the officers in the officer corps were accorded as being of ethnic minority background.”
Meanwhile, Tim Farron, the party’s environment spokesman, labelled the free market “our enemy when it comes to solving the housing crisis”.
Urging ministers to pursue “interventionist politics”, he added: “Perversely, the more restrictions and the more parity and the more power planning authorities have, the more likely we are to get housing built.”
On Sunday, activists will vote on a motion calling for a 1p tax on the sale of all new clothes, arguing it would reduce emissions and curb the “fast fashion” industry.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, defended the planned levy, insisting it was a “small price to pay” that would “reduce our emissions and … improve our recycling”.
On Saturday night, Carol Vorderman, the former Countdown presenter, and comedian Steve Coogan addressed the opening conference rally via videolink to support Liberal Democrat calls for electoral reform.
No shit.
Guy Verhoftwat was one of the reasons I chose to vote for Brexit.
LOL
Wasnt there an article just today saying the UK is doing better than Frznce or Germany? Why would they wanna rejoin if that’s true?
I’ve seen polls suggesting a majority of Brits now want to rejoin.
They can’t just test drive leaving the EU and join some number of years later. There needs to be consequence to a country leaving the EU that is more than just “well we tried and didn’t like it, can we come back in?”
They say a generation is 20 – 30 years. That seems reasonable. Who knows it could work out for them in that time.
If 99% of all Brits would want to join EU again and they decide to go back, how long would it take for them to be a member?
It is time to stop talking about this and accept the outcome. The UK is out. I doubt the UK will ever rejoin, since they would lose their currency and other stuff that was possible before leaving the EU.
Whatever they want, I don’t think “we” (as the EU citizens) would fall for that. Out is out. Come back 30 years from now and then maybe we’ll think about it.
To be fair to the Lib Dems, they’ve been the biggest party that unequivocally supported Remain. They even managed to get 2nd place in the UK’s last European election. What could’ve been avoided if Labour didn’t suck that hard.
This is what’s known as “talking out of both sides of your mouth”.
Can we trade them for hungary?
Who is Ed Davey? And why does he have so much say in this?
We don’t want you to rejoin us. Maybe you guys could finally just kiss the USA and stop living the lie. We just want you to be happy…but you know…not with us.
>It came as Guy Verhofstadt, who was the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator and has long opposed British sovereignty,
I do expect better from The Daily Telegraph’s reporting.
First party to announce NOTHING ELSE but “we will rejoin the EU” gets my vote.
And I don’t trust any single political party or politician enough to think that it would even actually happen then, but I would vote for the intention.
Lib Dems already pussied out during the time they could have made a difference and pulled all their anti-Brexit stance right at the crucial moment, and for what? To cling on to a pittance of votes? Twits.
At the moment, there is absolutely no party representing rejoining available to me.
And I would even hold them blameless if it meant a few years of hardship and lots of pissing about trying to get back in, because it was no easy thing to achieve in the first place, and now they’re clearing up another party’s shit so it will be difficult.
But without any sincere backing of the concept they can sing for my vote. If they’d been anti-Brexit, pro-Rejoin all along and stuck with that, I’d at least have granted them a bit of integrity. Now they just look like “we go where we think the vote is” and keep getting it wrong.
Just give the UK a Norway type deal because thats all they can be trusted with and handle. Make them obidient rule takers until they are educated enough to apreciate the EU.
Why cant they just go to europe?
Not a chance in hell.