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Lib Dems: “Crunch time” for Corbyn on Brexit

by Steve Beasant on 26 May, 2018

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable and parliamentary candidate for Lewisham East Lucy Salek have today invited members of the public to sign their joint letter calling on Jeremy Corbyn to support people having the final say on Brexit.

Lewisham East is a heavily ‘remain’ constituency, but the leadership of Labour, which is defending the seat, are in agreement with the Conservatives on opposing staying in the Single Market and the Customs Union. Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May also both oppose a vote on the final deal, all of which means the Labour leadership is supporting the Conservatives’ chaotic hard Brexit.

The Liberal Democrat campaign team later plan to hand in their public letter direct to Labour HQ in Lewisham East.

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable said: 

“We are in the curious situation where the leader of the opposition refuses to oppose the Conservatives on the biggest issue facing the UK in decades. If the Labour leadership joined us, we could defeat the Conservatives’ chaotic hard Brexit, but instead he is helping them at virtually every opportunity.

“This is crunch time for Corbyn. He has just a few weeks until the EU Withdrawal Bill comes back to the House of Commons, when he must do his job and oppose the Conservatives.

“Every vote for Lucy and the Liberal Democrats in this by-election is a warning to Corbyn that he cannot keep supporting the Conservatives on Brexit.”

Lucy Salek added: 

“Each day more and more people are coming into the campaign office to help because they are sick and tired of being taken for granted. Sick and tired of their concerns over Brexit being ignored. I understand their frustration.

“If elected as MP for Lewsiham East I will fight for our area and make sure people’s voices are heard. I will always put my constituents first. That is is why I would vote to give the people the final say on the brexit deal. Will the Labour candidate?”

Text of the letter.

Dear Jeremy,

You are the leader of a political party that has always tried to stand up for working people. Labour established the NHS; helped create the welfare state and implemented the minimum wage.

Throughout your career you have opposed the Conservatives. Whether on welfare cuts, their attempts to privatise our NHS services, or most recently the disgraceful treatment of the Windrush generation.

Indeed, our parties have worked together at key moments in our nation’s history. It was William Beveridge, a Liberal economist, who proposed the welfare state after the horrors of the Second World War. Clement Atlee, a Labour Prime Minister, who took up the task of building it.

And it’s with this in mind I write to you today. Our country is at a crisis point, as grave as it was in 1945. We face a future of the like proposed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and John Redwood: reactionary, intolerant and inward-looking.

But Jeremy, it doesn’t have to be this way. You must put a stop to helping the Conservatives deliver Brexit. Stop firing your MPs when they support moves to curb an extremist version of Brexit. Stop whipping your MPs and Peers to vote with the Conservatives on Brexit.

We should instead start the process of giving the people the final say on the Brexit deal which must include the option to remain in the EU. You claim to be ‘for the many not the few’. It’s the many that look to you now to take a stand against a few right-wing Tories.

The biggest failure of the Labour Party in the 21st century remains the illegal war in Iraq.  On this I think you and I might agree.  Do not allow Labour appeasement of Brexiteers to be another such failure, but this time on your watch.

If you do this, the Liberal Democrats – and our 200,000 strong supporters are ready to stand alongside you in the fight for our country’s future. We’ve already led the charge in the House of Lords, defeating the Conservatives 15 times, forcing them to think again on key aspects of Brexit. We have 400 local campaign groups who’ve had more than a million conversations with voters in the last year. We’ve just achieved our best local election result in 15 years – largely on a promise of fighting Brexit.”

The EU Withdrawal Bill comes back to the House of Commons next month.  I hope you join us to stop a disastrous Tory Brexit, which will cause permanent damage to the country and particularly to working people.

Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Lucy Salek
Liberal Democrat Candidate for Lewisham East

   1 Comment

One Response

  1. This needs to be made available nationwide to all voters.

    I am still amazed that BBCQT still has people saying “Get on with it” when you have to question their knowledge of what Brexit will mean.

    They still believe the lies which have been debunked even before the day of the referendum and since.

    I would like to know why there is not a big issue being made over “Vote-Leave – Be.leave £625,000 overspend”
    Is the Electoral Commission dragging its heels until after Votes.

    Surely if £77,000 overspend by Leave.EU warrants maximum £70,000 fine and CEO investigated by Met Police, where does Conspiracy to Overspend rank.

    Conspiracy, where a group of people conspire to break the Law in this case The Referendum Act and the Vienna Accord on Referendum. Not just an MP mistakenly submitting accounts, this was those running the Vote-Leave deciding to form a company by which they were able to channel this £625,000 to Aggregate IQ in Canada.

    The money paid for the same “contracted work as that being done for Vote-Leave”.

    The whistleblower(s) all say that the money went direct from Vote-Leave to Agg IQ because there wasn’t time to transfer to Be.Leave account, for it to be cleared and then for it to be transferred to Agg IQ.

    There is far more “evidence” in the case of Vote-Leave – Be.Leave than Leave.EU. So why are the Met already on the case, an allegation of conspiracy is not a simple Electoral Issue. in this case it was an action against the people of the UK.

    There was further conspiracy to cover up who was involved by removing names from records during the EC initial investigation after claims of Vote-Leave and Be.leave being the same campaign group. This could be a very clear case and the whistleblower(s) is a witness to these facts.

    Al Scott
    If Lib Dems want to stop Brexit this offers a sure fire way
    a) present Leave

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