Tim Farron has said he would campaign to remain in the EU in any second referendum, regardless of any deal secured by the UK with Brussels.
Challenged by Andrew Neil in a tetchy BBC interview on Thursday, the Liberal Democrat leader said his party would be unlikely to accept any outcome of the Brexit negotiations, despite having made a referendum on the final exit deal the cornerstone of its election campaign.
“I cannot see any chance of us getting a better deal than the one we have now. In a democracy it’s right to stand by your principles isn’t it?” he said. “I will campaign in that referendum on the basis of what’s best for Britain. My view is I cannot see how Theresa May will be able to get a deal better than the one we currently have.”
Neil also attacked Farron for describing himself as “a bit of Eurosceptic” during a campaign event in leave-leaning Cornwall and as “remoaner of the year” on leaflets in remain-supporting south London. “So you’re a Eurosceptic remoaner. How does that work out?” Neil asked.
“I’m passionate about the European ideal. I’m often critical of things the commission does, just as I’m critical of things the British government does,” Farron said.
“If people cast insults at you it’s quite good to own them if you possibly can. I’m sure you do it from time to time. There can be nothing more honest than leading a party supporting Britain’s place in Europe, and we have since 1955.”
Farron said he wanted to urge Labour voters across the UK to vote tactically for his party where they could, promising his MPs would then block key Conservative policies unpopular with Labour voters, such as the so-called “dementia tax” plans for overhauling social care funding.
“There are Labour and Conservative voters out there, particularly in those tranches of the country where the Liberal Democrats are challenging the Conservatives and in those places I want you to lend me your vote and I’ll tell you why. Because that is the way we can prevent the dementia tax,” he said.
Lib Dem support has hovered below double figures in recent polls, which suggest the pro-European party will perform much worse than it might have hoped. Farron has insisted he would not go into coalition with Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May, regardless of what either had to offer.
In the interview with Neil, Farron said that did not mean his manifesto was “a waste of time” but said it was necessary for his party’s electoral chances that it had pledged not to prop up either May or Corbyn.
“One of the things that stops you getting your message across is the thought that if you vote for the Liberal Democrats it’s a proxy for X or for Y,” he said. “We are not in a position, I don’t think, where we could potentially go into coalition with another party, led by Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, which wants to take Britain out of that free trade deal to damage all of our children’s [future].”
Farron also suggested he was cautious about the party’s decision to put the legalisation of cannabis in the party manifesto, admitting he thought drugs “do enormous harm to society” and that he would not want his own kids to smoke cannabis.
“I’m a parent. I don’t want my kids to take it, but I also want to make sure we deal with a serious problem in an intelligent way,” he said. “If you regulate it you can control it. I wouldn’t propose to do something controversial like this if the evidence didn’t suggest that all of our children would be more safe than they currently are and the criminal gangs under more threat then they currently are.”
The Lib Dems got their first cautious endorsement of the election campaign on Thursday from the Economist, though the magazine said the party was “going nowhere” this year and said its endorsement was a “down-payment for the future”.
On Friday, the former business secretary Vince Cable will give a speech accusing both the Conservative and Labour of running anti-business election campaigns. Both parties have adopted a Brexit strategy “designed to inflict maximum economic damage,” he will say.
Cable, who is fighting to regain his old seat of Twickenham, will say: “If we crash out of the single market and customs union and revert to World Trade Organisation terms, respected independent estimates suggest that our trade will slump by almost a third by 2030. Far from turning Britain into a centre for exports, the main thing we would export under Theresa May would be jobs.”
He will say Labour’s spending plans are “wholly unrealistic” and said the party would “drive out high-earners and leading international companies, leaving lower tax receipts for public spending”.
Ed Davey, Cable’s former coalition cabinet colleague who is attempting to win back the neighbouring seat of Kingston and Surbiton, will also launch a mock estate agent in London as part of an election stunt against the Tories’ social care plans. He will front the estate agent “May & Co” which will offer to sell pensioners’ homes in exchange for care costs.
