Quit and form new party, Farron tells Labour MPs

LABOUR moderates should ‘grow a flipping backbone’ and form a breakaway Remain party with Tory dissidents, Tim Farron said yesterday.

The ex-Liberal Democrat leader fuelled speculation about a new centrist party, saying he would be happy to ‘work with’ a group formed by Labour and Tory MPs.

He said: ‘I obviously want the Liberal Democrats to recover, become the next Government of the country and solve all the problems.

‘Alternatively, let some of these people in the Labour Party and the Tory Party grow a flipping backbone and leave. And we should work with them. Let them form their own party – we will work with them, and we’ll try and do it together.’ Labour chiefs are increasingly nervous about the prospect of a split following tensions over anti-Semitism and Brexit.

Moderate Labour MPs have previously backed away because of fears they would suffer the same fate as the SDP in the 1980s, which some believe led to 18 years of Tory rule.

But Mr Farron told the Politico website this was a misreading of history, stressing that the SDP reached 51 per cent in the polls before the Falklands War.