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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Farron says Lib Dems are only party that can stop Tory majority at next election – Politics live

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron delivers his keynote speech
The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, delivers his keynote speech. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Afternoon summary

  • Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has closed his party’s conference with a speech saying he wants the Lib Dems to “once again become one of the great parties of government”. Praising much of what Tony Blair achieved, in terms designed to make the Lib Dems appeal to centrist Labour voters, Farron also said the Lib Dems were the only party with a realistic chance of being able to stop the Conservatives getting a majority at the next election.

No one believes, whether boundary changes happen or not, that Labour will gain a single seat from the Tories.

The SNP could only possibly take one seat off the Conservatives.

But there are dozens of Tory seats in our reach.

Which means that the only thing standing between the Conservatives and a majority at the next election is the revival of the Liberal Democrat

  • He said the Lib Dems had a duty to be strong opposition.

People say to me, ‘this is a great opportunity for the Liberal Democrats’…

…but this is more than opportunity…it is duty.

Britain needs a strong opposition. The Liberal Democrats will be that strong opposition.

  • He criticised Labour for not providing an effective opposition.

There is a contest happening now for the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee – it is an important position but, let’s face it, it’s a retirement position.

Among the contenders are Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint and Chuka Umunna.

Shouldn’t that be their leadership contest?

What are these people doing, jostling for position in a sideshow. They should be centre stage.

  • He stressed his support for much of what Tony Blair did in his early years in office.

I kind of see Tony Blair the way I see the Stone Roses, I preferred the early work.

Tony Blair’s government gave us the national minimum wage.

It gave us working tax credits.

It gave us NHS investment and a massive school building programme.

I disagree with him a lot, but I will not criticise him for those things. I admire him for those things.

I respect him for believing that the point of being in politics is to get stuff done, and you can only get stuff done if you win.

  • He said the Conservatives’ stance on Brexit meant they were no longer entitled to call themselves the party of business. The Lib Dems were now the “free market, free trade, pro-business party”, he said.

Make no mistake, the Conservative party has lost the right to call itself the party of business. It has lost the right to call itself the party of the free market.

It no longer supports business, no longer understands the need for calm economic pragmatism – but instead pursues the nationalist protectionist fantasies of the Brexit fundamentalists who have won the day.

Indeed, my message to any business in this country – large or small – is if you are backing today’s Conservative party, you are funding your own funeral.

There is only one party now that believes in British business – large and small; that believes in entrepreneurship and innovation: the Liberal Democrats.

We are the free market, free trade pro-business party now.

  • He accused Jeremy Corbyn of not being interested in winning elections or in holding the government to account.

My problem with Jeremy Corbyn is nothing personal. After all, I used to see him quite a lot. In the Blair years he was always in our lobby.

No, my problem with Jeremy Corbyn is that, for him, holding the government to account is not a priority.

Winning elections is a bourgeois distraction – unless it’s his own leadership election.

It is baffling to see the Labour party arguing about whether or not they should even be trying to win an election.

Can you imagine that? The Liberals and Liberal Democrats spent decades out of power and then when the opportunity finally came – in incredibly difficult circumstances, when the easiest thing in the world would have been to walk away – we chose to take power because we knew the point of politics is to put principles into action. To get things done. Not just to feel good, but to do good.

  • He suggested George Osborne was to blame for the remain side losing the EU referendum. (See 10.31am.)
  • He said the EU referendum felt like a “bereavement” to him.
  • He said the Lib Dems should be willing to increase taxes to raise money for the NHS. (See 10.31am.)
  • He called for the abolition of SATS in their current form in primary schools. (See 10.31am.)
  • He claimed that the Lib Dems had bounced back since the 2015 election defeat.

We are almost twice the size we were then, we’ve gained more council seats than every other party in this country put together.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Here is some Twitter comment on the speech.

From the Observer’s Toby Helm

From the Times’ Philip Collins

From the Times’ Matt Chorley

From the Times’ Patrick Kidd

Updated

Tim Farron's speech – Verdict

Tim Farron’s speech – Verdict: Tim Farron is now the longest-serving main party leader in England and, unless Theresa May ups her game considerably in Birmingham a fortnight tomorrow, he is probably the best of them at delivering a platform speech. This one was certainly well written, and the delivery had its moments, but very few party conference speeches get remembered much after October and this one may sink from the memory even more quickly.

Lib Dem leaders always find themselves giving speeches in which they have to differentiate themselves from both the Tories and Labour and Farron had strong passages on both. He attacked the Tories, with more than a little justification, by saying they had forfeited the right to be seen as the party of business because of Brexit. (See 2.59am.) And he attacked Jeremy Corbyn and Labour for failing to provide serious opposition. More interestingly, he heaped praise on Tony Blair. Given that saying anything positive about Blair is tantamount to thought crime in Corbynworld, Farron is probably the only party leader who will pay tribute to Labour’s three-times election winner this autumn and the pitch for the Labour, centrist vote was obvious.

Farron’s jokes weren’t great, but there was a lot of personal content in the speech which came over as natural and uncontrived. And his passage about refugees, where he cleverly linked moral outrage with patriotism, was superb.

Blair famously spoke about the “hand of history” at one point and there was an echo of this when Farron said he wanted the Lib Dems “to be audacious, ambitious and accept the call of history”. Farron even set out plans for how his party might march back towards success although, having sketched out the Canadian route map to general election victory, he swiftly followed it up with a much more modest ambition that involved just depriving the Tories of a majority at the next election.

But, with the polls as they are (see 10.08am), even this felt quite a big ask. A great speech is one that can make its audience believe in its message. But, despite Farron’s eloquence on the subject of the Lib Dem recovery, it did not feel as if the Lib Dems will be going home truly convinced.

Updated

Farron is now on his peroration.

The only movement with the desire and the potential to stop the calamity of Brexit and the tragedy of a generation of Conservative majority rule is this movement, is the Liberal Democrats.

So, you can despair if you want and accept the inevitability of a Tory government for the next quarter of a century.

Or you can recognise that the Liberal Democrats can prevent that inevitability.

That means you. It means us. Together.

Together, we must fight to keep Britain open, tolerant and united.

Together, the Liberal Democrats must be the real voice of opposition.

Together, we must win.

Updated

Farron turns to Nigel Farage.

Of all the things that depressed me the morning after the referendum, seeing Nigel Farage celebrating really took the biscuit.

Here is a man who fought a campaign that pandered to our worst instincts: fear, anxiety, suspicion of others.

And he is not alone. His victory was welcomed by Marine Le Pen in France, Golden Dawn in Greece, and by nationalists and populists all across Europe.

And in a few weeks he went from standing in front of that odious Breaking Point poster demonising desperate refugees…

To standing on a podium in Mississippi next to Donald Trump.

And make no mistake, Farage’s victory is becoming the government’s agenda.

Updated

Farron says the Lib Dems are the only party that could realistically deny the Tories a majority at the next election.

What would us ‘doing an Ashdown’ mean for Britain today?

Well, look, no one believes, whether boundary changes happen or not, that Labour will gain a single seat from the Tories.

The SNP could only possibly take one seat off the Conservatives.

But there are dozens of Tory seats in our reach.

Which means that the only thing standing between the Conservatives and a majority at the next election is the revival of the Liberal Democrats.

So let’s make it happen.

Updated

Farron says Lib Dems should try to emulate Canadian Liberals

Farron sets out how this could happen.

Let’s be clear, we’re talking about doing a Trudeau.

Now, he’s better looking than me and he’s got a tattoo – I can fix one of those things, if you insist.

I wouldn’t get into the boxing ring with him, but I reckon I could have him in a fell race.

But the point is Trudeau’s Liberals leapt over an inadequate official opposition to defeat a right wing Conservative government. Do you fancy doing that? ’Cos I do!

And there are some who will say ... steady on. You’ve only got eight MPs.

Well look, maybe for the time being you might be sceptical about us doing a Trudeau, but let’s agree that we can definitely do an Ashdown.

To take this party from a handful of seats to dozens of seats, from the fringe to the centre, from irrelevance to importance.

NOTE: The Liberals in Canada went from having 34 seats in parliament in 2011 to getting 184 in 2015. There is more on how they did it here. The Lib Dems say they have been studying how their Canadian counterparts achieved this closely and that, for example, proposals to improve candidate diversity were in some respects directly modelled on what was tried in Canada.

Updated

Farron says he wants Lib Dems to become 'one of great parties of government' again.

A century ago, the Liberals lost touch with their purpose and their voters, and Labour took their chance and became Britain’s largest progressive party.

Today I want us utterly ready and determined to take our chance as the tectonic plates shift again.

I didn’t accept the leadership of our party so that we could look on from the sidelines, I did it because our destiny is to once again become one of the great parties of government, to be the place where liberals and progressives of all kinds gather to provide the strong opposition that our country needs.

Updated

Farron sets out his plan to rebuild the Lib Dems.

So here is my plan.

We will dramatically rebuild our strength in local government, deliberately, passionately, effectively.

Winning council seats is our chance to shape, lead and serve our communities to put liberalism into practice.

Liberals believe in local government, I believe in local government, every council seat matters to me.

So my challenge to you is to pick a ward and win it, and my commitment to you is that I choose to build our party’s revival on victories in every council in the country.

And my plan includes continuing to grow our party – our membership is up 80% in just 14 months – but that is merely a staging post, we will continue to build a movement that can win at every level.

I will lead the Liberal Democrats as the only party committed to Britain in Europe, with a plan to let the people decide our future in a referendum on the as yet non-existent Tory Brexit deal.

Farron says the Lib Dems can be the 'real opposition'

Farron says that, with Labour failing to provide an opposition, the Lib Dems can perform that role.

There is a hole in the centre of British politics right now; a huge opportunity for a party that will stand up for an open, tolerant and united Britain.

There is a hole in the centre of British politics right now for a rallying point for people who believe in the politics of reason, of evidence, of moderation ...

... who want facts, not fear;

… who want responsibility, not recklessness;

… who want to believe that someone is looking out for the long-term good of our country.

There is a hole in the centre of British politics right now that is crying out to be filled by a real opposition.

Updated

And he mocks the state of Labour.

There is a contest happening now for the chair of the home affairs select committee – it is an important position but, let’s face it, it’s a retirement position.

Among the contenders are Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint and Chuka Umunna.

Shouldn’t that be their leadership contest?

What are these people doing, jostling for position in a sideshow. They should be centre stage.

Updated

Farron says he would work with Corbyn, but that Corbyn will not work with him.

I believe in working across party lines. I’m prepared to work with people of all parties and none if it will make people’s lives better.

But I couldn’t work with Jeremy Corbyn, because Jeremy Corbyn would never work with me.

I wanted to work with him during the referendum campaign, but he wouldn’t share a platform.

Farron says he backs much of what Blair achieved

But Farron praises Blair’s record in other respects.

I kind of see Tony Blair the way I see the Stone Roses, I preferred the early work.

Tony Blair’s government gave us the national minimum wage.

It gave us working tax credits.

It gave us NHS investment and a massive school building programme.

I disagree with him a lot, but I will not criticise him for those things. I admire him for those things.

I respect him for believing that the point of being in politics is to get stuff done, and you can only get stuff done if you win.

Updated

Farron says Labour people use the word Blairite “as if it’s the world’s most offensive insult”.

He criticises Tony Blair’s record in some respects.

Just to reassure you, I am not a Blairite.

I was proud to march against his illegal invasion of Iraq. I was proud to stand with Charles Kennedy. And I was incredibly proud when Charles’ brave stance was vindicated in the Chilcot report.

I was also proud to be in the party that stood up against his government’s attempts to stamp on our civil liberties – from compulsory ID cards to 90-day detention without charge.

And I was proud of Vince as he called out his government for de-regulating the banks.

Farron accuses Labour of abandoning people who need a strong opposition.

We have huge crises in Britain today – in our NHS, in our economy, in our relationship with the rest of the world.

We have a Conservative government that got the support of less than a quarter of the electorate at the last election, led by a prime minister who nobody elected, that has plunged our country into chaos.

They spent a year going for the working poor, refugees and junior doctors.

And what have the Labour party been doing? Going for each other.

Instead of standing up to the Conservatives, they were sitting on the floor of half-empty Virgin trains.

Because maybe Jeremy Corbyn thinks there are more important things than winning elections, but for millions of people desperate for an affordable home, for a fair wage, for a properly funded NHS, they cannot wait. How dare the official opposition abandon them?

Updated

Farron contrasts Corbyn’s attitude to winning power with the Lib Dems.

It is baffling to see the Labour Party arguing about whether or not they should even be trying to win an election.

Can you imagine that? The Liberals and Liberal Democrats spent decades out of power and then when the opportunity finally came – in incredibly difficult circumstances, when the easiest thing in the world would have been to walk away – we chose to take power because we knew the point of politics is to put principles into action. To get things done. Not just to feel good, but to do good.

So we took power … and we got crushed.

So you could forgive us for thinking twice about whether power is really worth it.

But of course it’s worth it.

Having fine principles but no power is just turning your backs on the people who need you the most, its letting someone else win the day.

Updated

Farron claims Corbyn not interested in winning elections

Farron claims Jeremy Corbyn is not serious about winning elections.

My problem with Jeremy Corbyn is nothing personal. After all, I used to see him quite a lot. In the Blair years he was always in our lobby.

No, my problem with Jeremy Corbyn is that, for him, holding the government to account is not a priority.

Winning elections is a bourgeois distraction – unless it’s his own leadership election.

NOTE: The claim that Jeremy Corbyn is not interested in winning elections is one often made by his critics, but generally it is based on the perception that he seems more comfortable with protest than with preparing for government. Corbyn himself has never said anything to justify this accusation. But earlier this summer Jon Lansman, the Momentum founder and a close Corbyn ally, posted this message on Twitter that does confirm claims that at least some Corbynistas are ambivalent about the virtues of winning.

Farron turns to Jeremy Corbyn.

One thing you can’t accuse Jeremy Corbyn of is short-term thinking. His lot have waited over a hundred years for this.

Finally, they have taken the Labour party. Like all good Marxists, they have seized the means of production.

They’ve even seized the nurseries too – opening branches of ‘Momentum Kids’. Or as they are also known, Child Labour ... or Tiny Trots.

The Lib Dems have never had any trouble with entryists – unless you include the Quakers.

Updated

Farron says the Lib Dems would get rid of Sats in their current form in primary schools. This passage was released overnight. See 10.31am.

He criticises Theresa May’s plans to expand grammar schools.

Over the last 40 years, millions of children have been liberated by comprehensive education who would otherwise be consigned to second-class status in the secondary audience.

And it’s important to remember who did that: Shirley Williams.

We will defend your legacy Shirley. It’s not just about being a liberal – this is personal.

Updated

Farron pays tribute to Kirsty Williams, the Lib Dem leader in Wales and an education minister in the Welsh Labour government.

In the last government we introduced a policy – a long-term policy – to try and help the poorest kids keep up with their better off classmates: the pupil premium. And this school year more than 2 million children will benefit from that Liberal Democrat policy.

And I am so proud of Kirsty Williams, who is making a real difference, every day, to the lives of children of across Wales.

The pupil premium is not safe in the Tories’ hands – but it is safe in Kirsty’s.

And what’s more, she’s doubled it. That’s what happens when you get into power.

Updated

Farron turns to education.

Governments have designed an education system – especially at primary school level – that is focused not on developing young people for later life, for work or for further study, but on getting them through the wrong kinds of tests.

It’s not about whether kids can solve problems, or converse in other languages – or even their own. It’s about statistics. Measurements. League tables.

Instead of building an education system, we have built a quality assurance industry.

Farron says Norman Lamb will oversee this.

What Beveridge did for the 20th century, we need for the 21st century.

In Norman Lamb we have the politician who is most trusted and respected by the health profession – and deservedly so. And Norman and I are clear, we will not join the ranks of those politicians who are too scared of losing votes to face up to what really needs to be done.

We will go to the British people with the results of our Beveridge Commission and we will offer a new deal for health and social care, honest about the cost, bold about the solution.

NOTE: Norman Lamb was Farron’s rival in the Lib Dem leadership election last year. Farron was the favourite from the outset, but Lamb did better than many people expected.

Updated

Farron says if William Beveridge were writing his report today, he would propose a national health and care service.

If the great Liberal William Beveridge had written his blueprint today, when people are living to the ages they are now, there is no doubt that he would have proposed a national health and care service.

He would have been appalled about the child who has to look after their disabled parent or the hundreds of thousands of women across the country who are unable to work because they are disproportionately the care givers.

So let’s today decide to do what Beveridge would do. Let’s create that national health and care service.

And he says the NHS needs more money.

Of the 15 original EU countries – including Spain, Greece and Portugal – we rank behind them in 13th place when it comes to health spending. It would take tens of billions of pounds a year just to bring ourselves up to their average.

Farron says the Lib Dems would be willing to increase taxes to raise money for the NHS. This passage was released earlier. See 10.31am.

Updated

Farron is not talking about the need for new thinking on the NHS.

And nowhere is the danger posed by short-term thinking greater than with the future of the National Health Service.

Can you remember a time when there weren’t news reports on an almost daily basis saying the NHS is in crisis?

For years, politicians have chosen to paper over the cracks rather than come clean about what it will really take – what it will really cost – not just to keep the NHS afloat but to give people the care and the treatment that they deserve.

And that means, finally, bringing the NHS and the social care system together.

And he recalls what happened to his grandfather.

In my Grandpa’s journey through Alzheimers, he had good care in the home he spent his last couple of years in. But when he first became ill after the death of my Grandma, the place he was put in was despicable.

Lonely, unclean, uncaring.

It’s a few years back, but as I fought to get him out of that place and into somewhere better, it occurred to me that this was a standard experience for too many older people and their loved ones.

Maybe some people can just shrug and accept this, well I can’t.

I’ve seen enough terrible old people’s homes. And I’ve seen enough people who’ve had to wait forever for treatment – particularly people who don’t have someone to fight their corner.

Farron goes on.

Much to the government’s delight, compassion fatigue has set in. The news has moved on.

We’ve had Brexit, a new prime minister, a Labour leadership contest.

And none of that makes a blind bit of difference to a nine-year-old kid stuck alone and hungry and cold in a camp in northern Greece.

Or to the family, this morning, fleeing their burning camp in Moria.

This government wants us to forget this crisis, it’s too difficult to solve, too risky to take a lead.

But we have not forgotten, we will not forget, those children could be our children, how dare the government abandon them.

NOTE: Farron sounds almost tearful at this point. He gets a standing ovation here, and the longest round of applause so far.

Updated

Farron accuses David Cameron of being short-termist.

David Cameron’s handling of our relationship with Europe is a master class in selfish, shallow short-termism. Party before country at every turn.

And he says the refugee crisis is an example of Tory short-termism.

Look at their handling of the refugee crisis. The biggest crisis facing our continent since the second world war.

They did nothing to help right until the point they thought it was in their short-term interest to act, when a photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi face down in the sand was on the front page of every newspaper.

The people were shocked, heartbroken, they demanded action and the Tories did the bare minimum.

But since the front pages have moved on, they have barely lifted a finger.

Now there are some on the centre left who are squeamish about patriotism, but not me.

I’m proud of my country; I hate it when my government makes me ashamed.

  • Farron says government’s response to refugee crisis has made him “ashamed” of his country.

And he goes on to tell a story about his visit to Lesbos.

When I was on the island of Lesbos last year, after we’d helped to land a flimsy boat of desperate refugees, I was handing out bottles of fresh water.

And a few yards away was an aid worker from New Zealand, who knew that I was a British politician.

She looked at me and shouted: ‘Stop handing out bottles of water and take some f***ing refugees.’

Because that is how Britain is seen. Mean and not pulling its weight.

And maybe that doesn’t bother some people, but it bothers me.

Because I am proud of who we are – always a sanctuary for the desperate, the abused and the persecuted; and I will not stand by and watch my country become smaller, meaner and more selfish.

Updated

Farron says Theresa May should say what Brexit means.

Theresa May – tell us what Brexit really means.

You’ve had three months. You are the prime minister. Stop dithering. What is your plan?

And he restates the Lib Dem demand for a second referendum.

The Liberal Democrats have a plan. We know what we want and we know where we want to take our country.

When Theresa May does agree a deal with the EU, we want the people to decide.

Not a re-run of the referendum, not a second referendum, but a referendum on the terms of the as-yet-unknown Brexit deal.

And if the Tories say, ‘we’ve had enough referendums’, I say ‘you started it!’

NOTE: Farron obviously feels the need to include this because those calling for a second referendum on Brexit are being accused of ignoring the results of the first one. Owen Smith, the Labour leadership challenger, is saying the same as the Lib Dems on a second referendum, but in recent Labour leadership TV debates he has had audience members accusing him of ignoring democracy when he has tried to defend his position.

Updated

Farron says Brexit means Tories are no longer a party of business

Farron says the Tories are no longer the party of business.

Make no mistake, the Conservative party has lost the right to call itself the party of business. It has lost the right to call itself the party of the free market

It no longer supports business, no longer understands the need for calm economic pragmatism – but instead pursues the nationalist protectionist fantasies of the Brexit fundamentalists who have won the day.

Indeed, my message to any business in this country – large or small – is if you are backing today’s Conservative party, you are funding your own funeral.

There is only one party now that believes in British business – large and small; that believes in entrepreneurship and innovation: the Liberal Democrats

We are the free market, free trade pro-business party now.

NOTE: This is one of the most powerful passages in the speech – “my message to any business ... if you are backing today’s Conservative party, you are funding your own funeral” is a strong line – but the claim that the Conservatives have been captured by protectionists is misleading. Most of the leading Tory Brexiters strongly back free trade and want to reduce or eliminate tariffs.

Updated

Farron criticises Theresa May for having no plan for Brexit.

Theresa May says Brexit means Brexit. Well thanks for clearing that up.

Nearly three months since the referendum and we have a government with new departments, new titles, a new prime minister ... but no plan. No vision. No clue.

And no leadership.

Theresa May did so little in the remain campaign that she actually made it look like Jeremy Corbyn pulled a shift.

And today, the absence of leadership from the prime minister is astonishing, the absence of clarity as to what will happen to our country is a disgrace.

Three months on, it isn’t good enough to have brainstorming sessions at Chequers while investment and jobs steadily bleed away;

… while our standing and relevance in the world diminishes in direct proportion to the number foreign visits by Boris Johnson.

Updated

Farron tells the story about the meeting he attended in Preston after the Brexit vote. And he suggests George Osborne was to blame for the remain side losing. I posted this passage earlier. See 10.31am.

I don’t blame the people in that church hall for their anger – actually, I share it. I’m angry.

And I’m angry at the calculating forces of darkness who care nothing for the working people of this country, nothing for our NHS, nothing for those who struggle to get by, and who exploited that anger to win an exit from Europe that will hurt the poorest the hardest.

The people in that church hall in Preston, they’d voted differently to me but I thought, you know what, we’re on the same side here.

We see a London-centric – no, Westminster-centric – approach from politicians and the media. Treating the provinces as alien curiosities.

Those people in Preston – and Sunderland and Newport – see a divide between those who win and those who lose. When the country is booming, they don’t see the benefit. And when the country is in decline they are the first to be hit.

Updated

Farron turns to division.

We Liberal Democrats worked harder than anyone else in that campaign, we put blood, sweat and tears into it.

We put the positive case for Europe, while Cameron and Osborne churned out dry statistics, fear mongering and shallow platitudes.

It’s easy to say – after such a narrow a referendum result – that we are a divided country. But in many ways we are.

And the split between leavers and remainers is just a manifestation of that division.

NOTE: This line about Britain being divided does not fit with the claim a few minutes ago that Britain is “an open, tolerant and united country”. The speech editing here could have been a bit tighter.

Updated

Farron says he is proud of his identity.

But there is nothing wrong with identity. I am very proud of mine.

I am a Lancastrian, I am a Northerner, I am English, I am British, I am European. I am all those things, none of them contradict another and no campaign of lies, hate and fear will rob me of who I am.

But the remain side lost, he says.

Now – I was born and raised in Preston but the football-mad half of my family is from Blackburn, so I’m a Rovers fan. Defeat and disappointment is in my blood.

So those who say I’m a bad loser are quite wrong.

I am a great loser.

I have had loads of practice.

He says the Brexit vote was like a bereavement.

But the referendum result to me was like a bereavement. I was devastated by it.

Farron says there is no place called Little Britain.

Britain did not become Great Britain on fear, isolation and division – and there is no country called Little Britain.

There is nothing so dangerous and narrow as nationalism and cheap identity politics.

Updated

Farron says Preston voted to leave the EU.

He says he respects how they voted, but does not agree with them.

I’m still utterly convinced that Britain should remain in Europe.

I was on 23 June, I am today, I will continue to be.

Not because I’m some starry-eyed pro-European with Ode to Joy as my ring tone – we all know what I have as my ring tone – but because I am a patriot and believe it’s in our national interest to be in.

For more jobs, for lower prices, to fight climate change, to stop terrorism, catch criminals, to have influence, to be a good neighbour, to stand tall, to stand proud, to matter.

And, above all, because I believe that Britain is an open, tolerant and united country – the opposite of the bleak vision of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.

NOTE: “Open, tolerant, united” is the Lib Dem conference slogan. The party certainly is open (in the sense that it is less secretive than other parties) and tolerant. But the claim to be “united” took a hit yesterday when Sir Vince Cable openly criticised the party’s proposal for a second referendum on Brexit. Paddy Ashdown also sounded critical. That means that, on one of the key issues of the day, two of the party’s most prominent figures disagree with the other two (Farron and Nick Clegg).

Updated

Farron talks about his upbringing.

I have spent most of my adult life, worked and raised a family in Westmorland. I’m proud to call it my home.

But I grew up a few miles south, in Preston in Lancashire.

Preston is where I learnt my values, it’s where I was raised in a loving family where there wasn’t much money around and at a time when, it appeared to me, the Thatcher government seemed utterly determined to put every adult I knew out of work and on the scrapheap.

But our people and our community were not for breaking.

The great city of Preston is a no-nonsense place, proud of its history, ambitious about its future.

It is the birthplace of the industrial revolution;

It is the place where Cromwell won the most important battle in the English civil war. The complacent establishment stuffed by the outsiders.

Updated

Farron starts by saying he is the longest-serving main party leader.

He has seen off all the heavyweights – David Cameron, Nigel Farage ... Natalie Bennett.

Updated

Tim Farron's conference speech

Tim Farron is starting his conference speech now.

My colleague James Walsh has collected the views of some Lib Dem-supporting Guardian readers on the state of the party.

Lunchtime summary

  • Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem president, has said the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leaders should benefit her party. (See 11.56am.) She was speaking on the final day of the Lib Dem conference. Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, will close the conference with his keynote speech this afternoon. But he suffered embarrassment this morning when Ipsos Mori released polling suggesting that in his first year as party leader he has failed to boost either his party’s standing in the eyes of the public or his own. (See 10.08am.)
  • Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair boss and an opponent of Brexit, has suggested the UK will be “screwed” in trade talks with the EU. He said:

I have no faith in the politicians in London going on about how ‘the world will want to trade with us’. The world will want to screw you – that’s what happens in trade talks. They have no interest in giving the UK a deal on trade.

Nobody in the airline industry knows what the outcome of Brexit is, which puts us in exactly the same situation as most of the cabinet of the government of the UK, since they haven’t a clue either.

The European Union is not going to make it easy for the UK. All this kind of arrogant nonsense in London – ‘we’re the fifth-biggest economy in the world, they’ll give a good deal’. They won’t.

The European countries are paranoid about being seen to be tough on the UK, because if they are not tough on the UK, the rightwing parties in most of those countries – in Germany, in France, in Holland – will be next.

Updated

Gideon Skinner, Ipsos Mori’s head of political research, has posted this chart about Tim Farron’s approval ratings. (See 10.08am.) He says Farron is doing less well than Nick Clegg and Charles Kennedy were at the same point after their election as leader.

Updated

Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem president, addressing the conference this morning.
Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem president, addressing the conference this morning. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Corbyn's re-election as Labour leader could help Lib Dems, says party president

Sal Brinton has just finished delivering her main speech to the conference as Lib Dem president. In it, she said that Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader could help the Lib Dems gain voters and members.

Should Jeremy Corbyn be re-elected, I know that a number of Labour supporters and members will be feeling very lost.

Befriend them.

Let them know that we are still the party that is pro the EU, that whilst Labour are facing inward and fighting, we will be the party who holds the May Tory government to account, on investment in the NHS, and on fighting against a growth of grammar schools. They may now want to support us, and even join us because they share our values.

Updated

The Lib Dems have today announced a “national consultation” on Brexit. Lib Dem candidates will contact businesses, health and educational institutions and charities in their constituencies to discuss their concerns.

Dick Newby, the Lib Dem leader in the Lords, said:

Every sector of society is going to be affected by Brexit. We want to hear from people right across the country about how it will impact on their businesses, their jobs, their daily lives. How would restrictions on free movement affect your local hospital? What will losing European research grants mean for jobs in your local university?

We will challenge the government at every opportunity to hold them to account for the real damage that Brexit will do to individuals right across the country, and fight to keep Britain open, tolerant and united.

Lib Dems reform 'dysfunctional' party committee structure

When the Tories started coalition talks with the Lib Dems in 2010 one of the senior Conservatives (Oliver Letwin, as I recall) told the Lib Dems that he had been studying their party structure and now had a good understanding of how their party worked. “We’re glad you do,” came the reply, “because we don’t.”

This morning Lib Dem members have approved a 25-page motion changing the way the party’s committees operate. I’ll leave the details to Oliver Letwin, but in her speech opening the debate on the changes, Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem president, explained the changes were necessary because the current structure was incomprehensible.

The starting point, just over a year ago, for the review was a very strong message from the party that nobody understood how the federal committees worked, many of which were invisible and unaccountable ... When I became president I think the politest way of putting it is that our committee structure was dysfunctional.

As an example of the problem, she said the party had a federal communications and elections committee. It was responsible for all major election campaigns, she said. But, under the current structure, it did not report to conference and had no oversight of election candidates.

Updated

Ivan Massow explains why he has defected to Lib Dems

The businessman Ivan Massow is one of several high-profile new recruits who have joined the Lib Dems this autumn. Massow was a Conservative, and once tried to get chosen as the Tory candidate for London mayor, but he briefly left the party for Labour before going back, so technically he is on his third defection.

This morning he was been explaining his conversion to Tim Farron’s team at an event at the conference. My colleague Jessica Elgot has been listening.

Updated

You can read all the Guardian’s Lib Dem coverage here.

And here are two articles on the state of the Lib Dems from today’s papers that are worth reading.

The Tory crisis, though, is at least forward-looking. The Lib Dems’ problem, by contrast, is that of all centrist remainers, which is that they abruptly find themselves cast as the defenders of yesterday’s status quo. The Lib Dem position on Brexit is in fact fairly nuanced, accepting departure from the EU, at least for now, and fighting for a future in the single market. Or at least, it’s more nuanced than that of Owen Smith, who simply wants to turn the clock back. Speaking from the stage in Brighton, though, Farron’s default mode was a lament for the recent past. As a result, he sounds like he belongs in it.

Although it’s worse than that. Quite suddenly, on both sides of our politics, it is liberalism itself that has become the enemy. For the right, it smacks of multiculturalism and aloofness; stick the word ‘elite’ on the end and you’ve really got something to rail against. For the Corbynite left, meanwhile, it smacks of Blairism, globalisation, cowardice and treachery.

With Labour moderates in despair and Tory moderates in hiding, the Liberal Democrats now look an awful lot like everything that the rest of our politics defines itself against. Tragic, really. Destined for extinction when they weren’t needed and somehow, still destined for it when they are.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Mr Farron is getting a hearing from voters. His team admit that he needs a byelection victory to raise his profile, although the party’s old hands say that two of his predecessors, Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, did not become widely known to voters until they fought a general election.

One byelection prospect is the former Lib Dem seat of Richmond Park, now held by the Tory Zac Goldsmith. Mr Goldsmith has said he will resign if the government approves a third runway at Heathrow. Alternatively, if a snap general election takes place, Mr Cable and other former Lib Dem MPs will stand, guaranteeing news coverage.

A high-profile defection from Labour would also help Mr Farron but none seems forthcoming. Talks of some kind of Lib-Lab realignment have not progressed, with moderate Labour MPs determined to stay and fight against Jeremy Corbyn.

Updated

The more I hear about Glee Club, the more it sounds like a Momentum rally. As well as Owen Smith (see 9.33am), they had a go at Tony Blair. This is from the Independent’s Tom Peck.

And, as the Times’ Patrick Kidd reports, David Cameron was mocked too.

Farron suggests Osborne to blame for remain losing EU referendum

Here are some more lines from the extracts from Tim Farron’s speech released overnight.

  • Farron will suggest that George Osborne was to blame for the remain side losing the EU referendum. Describing a public meeting in Preston two weeks after the referendum, where most of the audience were leave voters, he will say:

One guy said that the clincher for him was George Osborne’s ‘punishment budget’ announcement.

And when he said that, pretty much the whole room chipped in and agreed with him.

There was near universal acknowledgement that this had been the pivotal moment.

Here was this guy, George Osborne, who they didn’t really like.

And who they felt didn’t really like them.

And he’d appeared on the telly bullying them into doing something they weren’t sure they wanted to do.

And they reacted.

You see, if you base your political strategy on divide and rule, do not be surprised if the people you have divided decide to give you a kicking.

  • He will say Theresa May’s failure to reveal her plan for Brexit is “a disgrace”.

Theresa May did so little in the remain campaign that she actually made it look like Jeremy Corbyn pulled a shift.

And today, the absence of leadership from Theresa May is astonishing, the absence of clarity as to what will happen to our country is a disgrace.

Three months on, it isn’t good enough to have brainstorming sessions at Chequers while investment and jobs steadily bleed away.

  • He will call for the abolition of Sats in their current form in primary schools.

I want our schools to be places where our teachers have the freedom to use their skill and their knowledge to open young minds not just train them to pass exams.

I want them to be places where children are inspired to learn, not stressed out by tests.

So I want to end the current system of Sats in primary schools that are a distraction from the real education that professional teachers want to give their children; that weigh heavy on children as young as six and add nothing to the breadth of their learning.

What are we doing wasting our children’s education and our teachers talents on ticking boxes?

Updated

Farron failing to make positive impact as Lib Dem leader, poll suggests

The Evening Standard has published a poll this morning suggesting that in his first year as Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has failed to do anything to help raise the reputation of his party.

According to the Ipsos Mori survey, Farron’s ratings have not improved over the past year.

The Liberal Democrat leader’s personal ratings are at the same level as when he took over last September.

Fewer than one in four think he is doing a good job, while almost half say they dislike him.

At the same time his party is bumping along at rock bottom, actively disliked by around four in 10 people and with a meagre 6% of people saying they would vote Lib Dem in a general election.

Ipsos Mori also found that almost half of the people it surveyed could not say whether they were satisfied or dissatisfied because they did not have a view. The Standard says:

Despite Mr Farron’s energetic style of campaigning, many people seem to be unaware of or indifferent towards him.

Asked if they were happy with his performance, 45% responded that they didn’t know, including one in three Lib Dem supporters.

Only 22% are satisfied with the way Mr Farron is doing his job, while 33% are dissatisfied. Even among Liberal Democrat supporters, just under half are happy with him.

The Standard quotes Gideon Skinner, Ipsos Mori’s head of research, as saying the Lib Dems have been in single figures in the polls for 26 of the last 30 months. Before 2011 they had not been in single figures for 20 years.

Updated

Tom Watson's Today interview - Summary

Back to Labour for a moment, and Tom Watson, the deputy leader, was on the Today programme this morning, speaking ahead of today’s NEC meeting. Here are the main points from the interview.

  • Watson said Labour had to unite – or “put the band back together”, as he put it – because an early election was likely. Having an elected shadow cabinet would help, he said.

We’ve had a very bruising summer, we are going to get a new leader elected on Saturday, we all think there is the likelihood of a very early general election and so we have got to put the band back together.

For me, the heart of our party is the parliamentary party – they are the people that come on the Today programme to talk about our policies to the nation – and we have got to bring people back in.

I think to have an elected shadow cabinet, not an appointed shadow cabinet, is one way we do that.

The debate we are going to have today is how we may elect a future shadow cabinet so that we get all the talents represented round the table.

  • He said that the NEC would discuss alternative ways of electing the shadow cabinet and that he was “open minded” as to what was best. The parliamentary Labour party has voted to bring back the old system of shadow cabinet elections, which says shadow cabinet members being elected by MPs. Jeremy Corbyn has proposed an alternative that would involve party members elected some shadow cabinet members, MPs electing others, and the party leader choosing some too. Watson said:

I’m taking both options to our NEC today. Jeremy wants a debate at the NEC to discuss that. I’m open minded on both options.

  • Watson said the NEC would also be debating plans to change the way the party leader is elected, but that the proposed changes would not affect whoever is elected leader on Saturday. He said he wanted to scrap the system that allows registered supporters to vote in leadership contests.

In the last set of reforms we had was some very rushed reforms and we created a new category of member, a registered supporter, which is pretty unpopular in all sections. We want to remove that, and we also want to enfranchise more ordinary trade unionists in the new process ...

Let me just specify – this would be after the current leader, whoever wins on Saturday, leaves their post. This won’t be a sort of sword of Damocles hanging over whoever is elected on Saturday.

Watson said he hoped the NEC would agree changes to the leadership election rules today, to enable them to be debated at Labour’s conference next week.

  • He said he was “very concerned” about some MPs facing the threat of deselection.

I’m very concerned about that because I do think if energy is expended trying to undermine political opponents in your own party then obviously that’s time not spent characterising and attacking our opponents.

Tom Watson.
Tom Watson. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Updated

In Brighton Lib Dem members have just started debating an emergency motion saying Britain should take “its fair share” of refugees, including unaccompanied children, and that refugees contribute “a huge amount to local communities throughout the UK”.

Perhaps many Lib Dems are still sleeping off the effects of Glee Club, the satirical singalong extravaganza that activists indulge in on the final night of their conference. (Political parties are like families; they may look normal from the outside, but they all have peculiar habits whose attractions are inexplicable to outsiders.)

According to the Press Association, Owen Smith, the Labour leadership contender, was one of the targets at this year’s Glee Club. Lib Dems sang this, to the tune of Robin Hood.

Owen Smith, Owen Smith,

Always on TV

Owen Smith, Owen Smith

Who the hell is he?

Hated by the left, loathed by the right?

What a shite, what a shite, what a shite

The song was written by the Southport Lib Dem councillor Nigel Ashton.

Updated

The Liberal Democrats are today heading into the fourth and final day of their autumn conference but, with only eight MPs, very little leverage over power at Westminster or anywhere else and Labour’s civil war hogging the headlines, they have struggled to leave much of a footprint on the national news.

Today, though, they have a chance to make some headlines. The leader’s speech is generally the most important showpiece event at any party conference and Tim Farron is closing the conference this afternoon.

According to extracts from his speech briefed overnight, he will say the NHS needs “a lot more money” and that the Lib Dems would be willing to raise taxes to give it what it needs. This is what Farron will say:

And let’s stop being complacent about our NHS. We have of course a brilliant NHS, the best staff in the world, free care at the point of access ... but we are spending at least far less every year than we need to make sure that we have a health and care service that really will provide for you and your family from cradle to grave.

So we need to face the hard truth that the NHS needs more money – a lot more money – not just to stop it lurching from crisis to crisis but so that it can meet the needs and the challenges it will face in the years ahead. So that it can be the service we all need it to be for the long-term. To provide confidence in our health service for the next fifty years.

In Norman Lamb we have the politician who is most trusted and respected by the health profession – and deservedly so. And Norman and I are clear, we will not join the ranks of those politicians who are too scared of losing votes to face up to what really needs to be done.

We will go to the British people with the results of our Beveridge Commission and we will offer a new deal for health and social care, honest about the cost, bold about the solution.

If the only way to fund a health service that meets the needs of everyone, is to raise taxes, Liberal Democrats will raise taxes.

And here’s the Guardian’s preview story.

I will post more from the speech extracts released overnight soon.

Today I will mostly be focusing on the Lib Dems, but I will keep an eye on other stories, including, of course, today’s meeting of Labour’s national executive committee.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: The Lib Dem conference opens with an emergency debate on refugees. Later in the morning there will be debates on internal Lib Dem constitutional reforms and transport.

11.30am: Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem president, speaks.

12pm: Labour’s national executive committee meets to discuss proposed changes to the way shadow cabinet ministers are chosen. Here is our preview story.

2.10pm: Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, gives his keynote conference speech.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.

Updated

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