The Liberal Democrats have opened their party conference in Bournemouth, with their new leader, Tim Farron, arguing his party can replace Labour as the dominant party of the centre-left.
Despite having suffered near-wipeout at the general election, the Lib Dems are claiming to be optimistic about their chances of rebuilding support because Labour is taking a firm swing to the left under Jeremy Corbyn.
Farron used a rally on Saturday night to appealed to liberal-minded members of other parties to find a new home in the Lib Dems, although he has backtracked on earlier suggestions that disheartened Labour MPs could soon defect.
“If Labour aren’t interested in standing up to the Tories and providing a credible opposition, that’s their funeral,” he said.
“The Liberal Democrats will fill that space. Radical and liberal and responsible too. When the tectonic plates of politics move, they sometimes move immensely quickly – that is what is happening now.
“These are momentous and historic times, history calls us, we will answer that call. Britain needs a party that is progressive, moderate and liberal. We are that party. This is our moment.”
Meanwhile, Sir Vince Cable, the former business secretary, has called for Labour moderates to unite with the Lib Dems to create a new political force on the centre left. He even suggested an “avalanche” of Labour MPs could split off and join together with his party.
However, Labour MPs, including John Woodcock, chairman of the moderate Progress group, have rubbished the idea that any centrists will cross the floor.
The theme of the Bournemouth conference is the Lib Dem “fightback” as the party claims to have gained 20,000 new members since the election and to have unexpectedly won a few more councillors in byelections over the summer.
However, Farron faces an extreme uphill challenge given the scale of Lib Dem losses at the election, when the party under Nick Clegg struggled to win over centrist voters by promising “a stronger economy and a fairer society”.
The party has just eight MPs and got only 8% of the vote, coming fourth, way behind Ukip. Farron could now face a further loss of support to Labour because of Corbyn’s liberal position on immigration, surveillance and human rights.
The new Labour leader also has a strong record on wanting to scrap tuition fees, abolish Trident and oppose nuclear power – all issues on which the Liberal Democrats compromised in coalition. On top of that, Farron is at risk of leaking support to the Tories among centrists worried about the prospect of a more leftwing Labour party gaining power in 2020.
The new leader will also have a harder time gaining media attention now that his parliamentary representation has shrunk so significantly.
Already, the Conservatives and the SNP have been questioning why the House of Commons needs to go on holiday during Lib Dem conference given its relevance to just eight MPs. A Conservative minister said it was raised privately with David Cameron and he is understood to be sympathetic to the complaints but felt it would be too mean to deal his former coalition partners such a blow this year.
