Sir Vince in secret talks to set up a new anti-brexit political party
SIR VINCE CABLE has confirmed that he missed two knife-edge votes in the Commons last week to attend a “private and confidential dinner” where the idea of a new anti-brexit party was reportedly discussed.
The Liberal Democrat leader admitted it was a “mistake” to miss last week’s crunch vote on the Brexit customs bill, but insisted that holding meetings with “people in other parties” was “part of the job”. Confirming reports about his whereabouts on Monday evening, Sir Vince said he had been holding “confidential discussions” at a private dinner but refused to reveal with whom he had been meeting.
However, a senior Lib Dem source last night said that Sir Vince had met with a cross-party group, including a number of Labour Party figures, during which the subject of a new political party was discussed.
While they refused to name the attendees, the insider told The Daily Telegraph that Sir Vince was “interested in new groups emerging” and was “keen to
find ways of working together on common causes”. They said the subject of a new centrist party or pro-eu movement was discussed, adding Sir Vince was open to “taking advantage of political change. That doesn’t mean mergers or defections, though. We’ve already got a centrist party and Vince is focused on that.”
Separately, a prominent Labour figure with links to pro-eu groups last night said a number of MPS had mooted the idea of defecting to a new party in protest at the party’s position on Brexit.
The news that Labour and Lib Dem politicians were holding secret talks will heighten suspicions among Eurosceptics that a new party could be launched in the autumn with the intention of thwarting Brexit.
Sir Vince recently enlisted the services of Tom Pitfield, a political strategist who worked on the campaigns of Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron. The source said Mr Pitfield had been hired amid efforts to make the party a modernising movement like En Marche and Canada’s Liberal Party.
Asked about the dinner yesterday, Sir Vince denied the idea that he would be willing to defect to a new party but said if there was a “realignment” in British politics he intended the Lib Dems to be “at the centre of it”.
“Talks with people in other parties to stop Brexit, that’s the priority,” he said. “But in the longer term there might well be realignment, because of the deep splits in the parties,” he told BBC radio’s Pienaar’s Politics.
“My party will play a key role in whatever happens. The immediate preoccupation is to work with people in other parties to try and stop Brexit.”
Talk of an anti-brexit party has gathered momentum following the emergence of entrepreneurs, philanthropists and donors prepared to invest £50 million in keeping Britain in the EU.
Separately, Sir Nick Clegg, Tony Blair and David Miliband have been linked to similar schemes, though none has yet materialised.