Lib Dems in La-La Land

They vow to hold second Brexit poll... to legalise cannabis and ban diesel cars... and Farron does an abortion U-turn

‘It will wreck your future’

THE Liberal Democrats last night pledged to ban diesel cars, legalise cannabis and prostitution and scrap short prison terms.

Tim Farron took to a stage decorated with an EU flag to put a second Brexit referendum at the heart of his party’s election manifesto.

Speaking in an east London club in an apparent pitch for the youth vote, he urged voters to reject ‘Theresa May and Nigel Farage’s extreme version of Brexit’.

Opinion polls show the Lib Dems are failing to break through amid suggestions that the seats of both Mr Farron and former leader Nick Clegg are at risk.

The party’s manifesto promises to hike income tax by 1p for all and to borrow £100billion. Among the other pledges are a plan to legalise and tax cannabis use and production, which the party claims will raise £1billion. Possession of any illegal drug for personal use would no longer carry a jail term. The Lib Dems also promise to legalise both selling and paying for sex, saying this would ‘ reduce harm and defend sex workers’ human rights’ so police can focus on victims.

Following warnings about dangerous levels of pollution, the party wants to ban diesel cars and small vans and bring in a scrappage scheme. MPs and motoring groups criticised the proposal, saying it penalised the families and small businesses once told by government that they were doing the right thing in buying diesel.

Short jail terms of a year would be scrapped and transgender prisoners put in jails that ‘reflect their gender identity, rather than their birth identity’.

Fifty thousand more Syrian refugees would be brought to Britain.

Despite a controversial decision to support the tripling of university tuition fees during the Coalition government, the Lib Dems are not proposing to scrap them. The issue led to a wipeout for the party at the polls in 2015. The manifesto also proposes a rent-to-own scheme that would see monthly rents used like a mortgage with working tenants owning their own home over a 30-year period.

The Lib Dems would restore housing benefit to young people, bring in bus passes for 16 to 21-year-olds with a two thirds discount, and lower the voting age to 16.

Formally launching the manifesto yesterday, Mr Farron said: ‘You don’t have to accept Theresa May and Nigel Farage’s extreme version of Brexit that will wreck the future for you, your family, your schools and hospitals.’

In his speech he also compared the Prime Minister to far Right politicians such as Marine Le Pen.

Business leaders criticised the policy proposals. Carolyn Fairbairn of the CBI said: ‘As we chart a new course in our relationship with Europe, it’s all the more important that the United Kingdom remains a highly attractive country in which to invest and create jobs.

‘Reversing cuts to corporation tax and not getting behind Heathrow’s expansion will limit the country’s ability to remain internationally competitive.’

Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the manifesto would increase the UK deficit because the extra spending was not matched by tax rises.