I can’t forgive him for calling referendum: Lib Dems leader

DAVID Cameron “cannot be forgiven” for his decision to call a referendum on Europe, according to the Liberal Democrats leader.

The former Tory prime minister has said he is “truly sorry” for the divisions caused by the Brexit vote result, but Jo Swinson told Lib Dem members at the party conference in Bournemouth that she would not be offering forgiveness.

“No, I don’t forgive David Cameron for calling the referendum,” said the Lib Dem leader. “I think so much of the problems we are facing right now stem from David Cameron’s shocking in putting the interests of the Conservative Party ahead of the national interest.

“It is a pattern we have seen since by Conservative prime ministers. All of this is about how the Conservative Party could be held together on the issue of Europe when it is the future of our country that is at stake.”

The East Dunbartonshire MP received a huge boost from her party after members backed her plan to cancel Brexit if the party wins a majority at the next election.

Yesterday, members voted overwhelmingly in favour of writing the revocation of Article 50 into the party’s next election manifesto.

Day two of the conference featured an emotional goodbye to Sir Vince Cable, the party’s former leader who is to stand down as an MP at the next election. In what looked like his final speech as a party MP, the 76-year-old drew a standing ovation as he called for the party to be a “broad church”, in response to Labour and the Tories who, he argued, are drifting away from the centre ground.