Peer slams ‘bitterly divided’ politics
A LEADING academic and Liberal Democrat peer has issued a savage attack on Britain’s “bitterly divided” political system and its failure to resolve Brexit.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who has been involved in Liberal politics since the 1960s, also accused some high-profile Brexiteers of “going mad” in the wake of the EU referendum.
The Liberal Democrat politician became a life peer in 1995 and was given the title Baron Wallace of Saltaire – a small village in the West Yorkshire town of Shipley.
He has written extensively about the UK’s relationship with the European Union over the last five decades.
In an interview with The York
shire Post he expressed his frustration over the Brexit deadlock that has gripped Parliament.
“I really don’t know whether it can be broken,” he said.
“We are in the most astonishing position as far as British politics is concerned, in which – look the Government is completely divided – bitterly divided.
“There are Conservatives I know well who think their party is going mad.”
Reflecting on how the Brexit process has affected individual MPs he added: “There are Conservatives who I know who in my opinion have gone mad.
“[Tory backbencher and longstanding eurosceptic] Bill Cash... is making speeches now in which he suggests that violence should be justified if we don’t go for a hard Brexit. I mean, that is beyond reason.”
Lord Wallace blamed a failure of leadership among the two main political parties and hit out at the media for focussing too heavily on Conservative and Labour infighting.
He said: “The Labour party is also divided, with a leader who is not leading and who appears to be in the hands of his advisers and is blocking the party.
“And a media so preoccupied with the internal stories of the major parties that they are not doing covering what other parties are doing.”
Turning to how to break the Brexit impasse, he urged the Tories to ditch Theresa May and appoint a new leader from the next generation of Conservative MPs.
“We need to go down to a different generation. There are some rather good people the next generation down in the Conservative party. I would say Tobias Ellwood, Tom Tugendhat, Alistair Burt.
“I worked quite closely with David Lidington in government. David is an honest man who recognises a piece of evidence when it passes him by, which other people don’t.”
He added: “In the Labour party there are a number of very good women, including some of our Yorkshire MPs, who really don’t have enough influence over the leadership.”
On whether his own party leader has performed well during Brexit, he said: “I think Vince has done a good job in difficult circumstances and we have happily attracted a large number of new members and they are enthusiastic new members.
“It’s been very difficult for us or anyone else to get a word in edgeways... but we are gaining ground.”