MAY DECLARES WAR ON LIB DEMS
As Farron flip-flops on Brexit, PM targets the West Country – saying a Lib Dem vote will usher in ‘coalition of chaos’
THERESA May turns her guns on the Liberal Democrats today, accusing them of trying to scupper Brexit and being prepared to ‘prop up Jeremy Corbyn’.
The Prime Minister said Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who backs holding a second EU referendum, wants to disrupt Brexit negotiations and ‘reopen the battles of the past’.
If the Lib Dems end up putting Mr Corbyn in No 10, it would be ‘a recipe for years of drift and division’, she said.
In an article for the Western Morning News, Mrs May says the election is a ‘ chance to put old divisions behind us and to bring the country together’.
Warning how high the stakes are in the upcoming Brexit talks, she says ‘our future prosperity, our place in the world and our standard of living all depend on getting the next five years right’.
She says every vote for the Conservatives will show a ‘unity of purpose’ and strengthen her negotiating position.
Mrs May – who wore a striking pair of leopard- print boots as she visited the North-West yesterday – will today tour the South-West, traditionally a Lib Dem heartland, as she attempts to shore up Tory support.
At the same time, former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will claim the average UK household could be £ 500 worse off this year than last, and accuse Mrs May of inflicting ‘economic harm’ on the country.
The PM writes: ‘I am determined not to allow parties like the Liberal Democrats to prosper, because it is in their interests to prop up a Corbyn coalition of chaos so that the Brexit process stalls and they can reopen the battles of the past.
‘Wherever it says Labour or Liberal Democrat on the bal- lot, it’s a weak, nonsensical Jeremy Corbyn that gets the vote.
‘At the last election, voters here in the South-West were the difference between a strong, majority government and a weak, unstable coalition of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP.
‘The opposition parties are lining up to prop up Jeremy Corbyn and disrupt our Brexit negotiations – a recipe for years of drift and division at this crucial time.’ The South-West is seen as a key target area by Lib Dem strategists, who hope to win back some of the 14 seats in the region that they lost to the Tories at the 2015 election.
At the weekend, Mr Farron described himself as ‘a bit of a Eurosceptic’, which was seen as an attempt to appeal to Leave voters in the West Country.
But yesterday on a visit to south- west London – a Remain stronghold where the party also hopes to win back seats from the Tories – the Lib Dem leader brandished his pro-EU credentials, leading to accusations he was ‘flip-flopping’.
On Sunday he said: ‘I don’t want to go off on a little bit of a rabbit hole here, but you will remember that I resigned from the Liberal Democrat front bench about ten years ago because I am a bit of a Eurosceptic.’
Yesterday, at a campaign event in Surbiton, he told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m massively proEurope but I am also somebody... who is sceptical about people who hold power.
‘We are utterly clear about the fact that Britain’s best future is inside the European Union and our job is to make sure we get the best outcome possible from any potential deal.’
There are ten seats in the South-West with Tory majorities of fewer than 10,000, meaning they can be considered marginal.
The most marginal is Thornbury and Yate in Gloucestershire, which the Tories hold with a majority of 1,495 after snatching it from former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb in 2015. St Ives, Torbay and Bath all have Conservative majorities of fewer than 4,000. Paddy Ashdown’s former seat of Yeovil – lost to the Tories in 2015 – comes next on the target list, followed by Cheltenham, Devon North, Wells and Cornwall North.
‘Reopen battles of the past’