Chuka Umunna today predicted the Liberal Democrats would take seats from the Tories in every part of the country in an election.
The former Labour MP said Theresa May’s assertion that “if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere” was “utter garbage”.
He made the comments at his first Lib-Dem conference, saying: “At the election you will see Liberal Democrats taking seats from the Tories in every part of the country — because so many people are flocking to us, the strongest and biggest Remain party.”
The Streatham MP also said that neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Corbyn was fit to lead the country, before launching an attack on the Labour Party for the anti-Semitism scandal.
It comes after the Lib Dems voted overwhelmingly at the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday to back leader Jo Swinson’s proposal to revoke Article 50. Writing in today’s Standard, Ms Swinson said the Lib Dems were now the “clear rallying point for those who want to see a society that is open, fair and inclusive”.
But one of the party’s most senior MPs, Sir Norman Lamb, warned there was a “real danger” of breaking the nation’s social contract if Leave voters felt that their referendum victory in 2016 was simply being cast aside.
Sir Norman, who is standing down at the next election, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The polarisation that we are seeing is actually incredibly dangerous.
“If we take this to the very limit in a situation where one side or the other is vanquished entirely I think there is a real danger we break the social contract in our country.”
