A progressive case for backing her party on Thursday.
On Thursday, Remainers have a choice to make. To make your voice heard, and to make your vote count, you will have to vote for the clear-Remain party who has the best chance of representing your views in Europe.
As polls over the past few weeks have indicated, that party is the Liberal Democrats.
It saddens me deeply that there’s no unified remain slate in these elections, as we’ve always been a party of collaboration, and a party who want to see proportional representation.
It’s a matter of fact that we reached out to Change UK, yet they tried to go after our members and donors, a tactic that has failed drastically for them. We’ve previously tried to make an alliance work with the Greens in my patch, but the plan was refused.
We’ve reached out to the Labour leadership, and called on them to represent the significant part of their party who want to remain in the European Union. However Jeremy Corbyn has consistently voted against Europe since the 1980s, and has refused to unequivocally back a People’s Vote.
We will work in the future with any of these parties, if they are willing to work with us.
This is not about progressives squabbling with each other, this is about stopping Brexit.
I recently joined More United, a highly effective forward thinking organisation whose name comes from the immortal words of Jo Cox, “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us”.
Opposition to Brexit is what we have in common, and this is what we need to unite around.
Let’s not underestimate the opposition either. Nigel Farage is a well-funded dangerous populist, who is closely aligned with Trump, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and ultimately Putin. Make no mistake, he is the ‘alt-right’ in this country.
The Liberal Democrats are second in the latest YouGov poll behind his Brexit Party, but a long way second. We need as much support as we can get to take our country back from the brink.
I appreciate that many of you reading this would not instinctively vote Liberal Democrat. However I think that if you look at our policies, you will find common ground.
We would make Britain carbon zero by 2045, and the EU by 2050. We would instruct the state to build 300,000 social houses a year. We would bring around drug reform. We would end austerity. (You can read our manifesto for these elections here.)
The progressive left and the centre ground can not give up seats in Europe to those who espouse the politics of hatred and division because we were too busy bickering about who was the first to call for a People’s Vote. Bollocks to Brexit. Vote Liberal Democrat on Thursday.
Wera Hobhouse is the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath.
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