We’re no one-trick party but we’re feeling the squeeze, says Swinson
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leader Jo Swinson has insisted the party’s manifesto shows it is not a “onetrick” anti-Brexit party.
However, Ms Swinson admitted the Lib Dems are suffering a “squeeze” in the polls.
On a campaign visit to Cambridge as the party unveiled its manifesto, Ms Swinson insisted the Lib Dems have a wide-ranging agenda.
She told the PA news agency:
“We have got ambitious plans for free childcare.
“We have ambitious plans to tackle the mental health crisis. We have bold plans to deal with the climate emergency.
“And significant investment in schools to give children the best start in life.
“All of those things, absolutely, become much easier to do if we stop Brexit and have the benefits of remaining in the European Union.
“There is a whole Liberal Democrat agenda which is a plan for a brighter future for our country.”
Ms Swinson insisted the party would do better than the opinion polls predicted, stating: “There has obviously been a bit of a squeeze, but at this point in the 2017 election the polls weren’t a very good indicator to what actually happened in the final outcome.”
The Lib Dems are currently standing in the mid-teens in a number of opinion polls after beating Labour to hit the low20s in some surveys a few months ago. Ms Swinson was asked if Lib Dem claims of a potential £50bn bonus from remaining in the EU were as untrue as they might say the Leave campaign’s referendum pledge that Brexit would deliver £350m extra a week to the NHS was.
The Lib Dem leader said: “Well, not according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. So, you don’t need to take our word for it. We have actually gone out and listened to the experts.”