Cable changes the rules as Lib Dems look to emulate Macron’s ‘En Marche! moment’
SIR VINCE CABLE yesterday announced plans to change the Liberal Democrats’ membership rules in an attempt to trigger an “En Marche! moment” as Tony Blair suggested a new centrist party will be needed to fill the “vacuum” at the heart of UK politics.
Sir Vince said he would stand down as Lib Dem leader next year and unveiled radical plans that would allow the party to be led by a non-mp and for people to vote in leadership contests without paying for membership.
The Lib Dems hope making it easier to join the party will lead to the kind of surge in support that propelled Emmanuel Macron to the French presidency after he set up his own centrist political movement in 2016.
Sir Vince’s intervention came on the same day Mr Blair, the former prime minister, said he was unsure whether the Labour Party could be “taken back” from Jeremy Corbyn by moderates.
Mr Blair said Labour was now a “different party” and he hoped it was not “lost”.
But he claimed many voters would not “tolerate” being asked to make a binary choice between Mr Corbyn’s Labour and a Conservative Party potentially led by Boris Johnson.
He said: “I don’t know what will happen and I don’t know how it will happen.
“But I just don’t believe people will find that, in the country as a whole, an acceptable choice. Something will fill that vacuum.”
The timing of Mr Blair’s and Sir Vince’s pronouncements reignited speculation in Westminster that a new party could be set up in an attempt to win the support of voters who feel politically homeless because of Labour’s shift to the Left and the Tories’ probrexit stance.
There has been almost constant speculation over a possible Labour split since Mr Corbyn won the leadership in 2015, but the failure of the breakaway Social Democratic Party in the Eighties continues to haunt those considering a new party.
Meanwhile, a number of moderate Europhile Tory MPS have threatened to quit the party if Mr Johnson ever wins the leadership.
Sir Vince admitted that the Liberal Democrats “may not be the only centre force in British politics in the coming years”, with the possible creation of a new party of the centre ground being the “worst kept secret in Westminster”.
He said that by opening up the Lib Dems he hoped to convince “those who agitate for a new force” that his party was already a “strong movement for open, centrist and internationalist politics”, which was “open to working together with those who share our values”.
The Lib Dem push to create a “Movement for Moderates” has been directly inspired by Mr Macron’s electoral success in France and the resurgence of the Liberals in Canada under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, who took the party from third place to a stunning election victory in 2015.
The Daily Telegraph understands that senior Lib Dem figures have met officials from Mr Macron’s En Marche! and have also spoken to people who helped to deliver success for Mr Trudeau as they seek to orchestrate their own dramatic turnaround.
A senior Lib Dem source said: “We have learnt a lot from the Canadian Liberal Party, who we have been talking to for some time.
“We have met En Marche! on several occasions. Several senior party figures, including at least one MP, have met
He claimed many voters would not tolerate a choice between Mr Corbyn and a Tory party led by Boris Johnson
with En Marche! We are focused on turning the Liberal Democrats into a movement. This is very much our Trudeau or En Marche! moment.”
Sir Vince used a speech in central London to signal that he will stand down as leader after the local elections take place next May.
The former business secretary said reports of his “imminent departure” were untrue and that he intended to remain until after the point of Brexit in March next year in readiness for a snap general election if it was called.
But he emphasised that he aimed to make transforming the Liberal Democrats from an “old-style political party into a new, open movement” to be one of his final acts as leader.
He said the party was starting from a “low base” after “disappointing” general election results in 2015 and 2017 and that to reinvigorate it, changes were needed to encourage more people to join.
“The first is to widen membership with a new class of ‘supporters’ who pay nothing to sign up to the party’s values,” he said. “They should enjoy a range of entitlements, including the right to vote in leadership and to shape the party’s campaigning online.”
Sir Vince also hopes that opening up the leadership to a wider field than just the party’s MPS will attract new supporters.
He said: “The truth is that there are many talented people with proven leadership ability – in the professions, the armed forces, the voluntary sector and business – and who share our values but who have not pursued a parliamentary career.”
He said he wanted the next Lib Dem leader to be chosen from the “widest possible pool of talent” and for them to be put in control of a “far bigger, more open movement than any previous leader has been”.
Sir Vince will be hoping to attract support from voters who backed Labour in the late Nineties and Noughties and who now feel alienated.
Mr Blair gave voice to that alienation yesterday as he said Labour had changed dramatically since he quit the leadership in 2007.
The former prime minister, who led Labour to a landslide in 1997 and won three general elections, told the BBC: “I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for over 40 years.
“You do feel a strong loyalty and attachment, but at the same time it’s a different party. The question is, can it be taken back?
“This is a different type of Labour Party. Can it be taken back? I don’t know.”
He said he was still encouraging young people to join the Labour Party but he was “not sure that it is possible to take it back”.
Mr Blair added: “There’s lots of people associated with me who feel that the Labour Party’s lost, that the game’s over. I’m kind of hoping they’re not right.”
Asked if Labour moderates had a “duty” to stop a government led by Mr Corbyn after Brexit, Mr Blair said: “You would have to think carefully about the balance between tribal loyalty and what you think is right.”