Not all are happy with the decision, but the move will please the Lib Dems’ growing base of Remainers
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS do not like Brexit. To clear up any lingering doubts, at their conference in Bournemouth a batch of their freshly elected MEPs strode on stage wearing “STOP BREXIT” T-shirts. Elsewhere, activists wearing blue berets spangled with EU stars wandered around hawking “Bollocks to Brexit” stickers.
Yet the move will please the party’s growing base of Remainers, who powered the Lib Dems to second place—ahead of both the Conservatives and Labour—in the European election in May. Remainers prefer a straight cancellation of Brexit to a second referendum by two to one, according to a poll by Opinium. Only one in ten Leave voters backs a second referendum.
Still, optimism abounded in Bournemouth. Normally the annual conference is a form of therapy for Lib Dems, jokes Tim Farron, who led the party in 2015-17 while it was on life support, with only 8% of the vote and eight MPs. Now its MPs are much more bombastic. Chuka Umunna, who defected from Labour this summer, suggested that the party could win 200 MPs if it gets a 5% swing in the polls.
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