The Liberal Democrats announced ahead of their Party Conference this week that they would not be campaigning on the platform of re-joining the European Union.
The move has upset many of their supporters, who were overwhelmingly in support of remaining in the EU. The Liberal Democrats had based their campaign during the last General Election on remaining in the EU.
This conference will be the first for new Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, following his success in the Lib Dem Leadership contest last month.
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Lib Dem Europe spokeswoman Christine Jardine told The Independent last week that: “At this point, our priority is to make sure that we do everything we can to keep the pressure on the government to get a trade deal with the EU at the end of December and to make sure we have as positive a relationship as possible with the EU after the end of the Brexit transition.
“We are still hugely and proudly pro-European, but we have to accept and reflect the new reality that we have left the EU and it’s up to us now to build a fresh relationship with the remaining EU.”
This morning, Sir Ed Davey all but admitted that Brexit was no longer an electoral discussion. He said on The Andrew Marr Show: “As I lead the party now, recognising that we have had three very disappointing elections, I’ve said that we have to wake up and smell the coffee and listen to people first, before we decide our manifesto in four years’ time.
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“So I am going on a listening tour and when I am meeting people around, they’re talking not about Brexit, they are talking about Covid, they are talking about their jobs, their livelihoods, their businesses and I want the Liberal Democrats to talk and focus on people’s concerns.
“I want our policies to be relevant to where they are. So that’s my focus as I rebuild the party and reconnect with the voters.”
