{"id":11188,"date":"2024-09-14T06:55:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T06:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/brexit-truce-as-pro-eu-lib-dems-focus-on-long-game\/"},"modified":"2024-09-14T06:55:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T06:55:06","slug":"brexit-truce-as-pro-eu-lib-dems-focus-on-long-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/brexit-truce-as-pro-eu-lib-dems-focus-on-long-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit truce as pro-EU Lib Dems focus on long game"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Lib Dems have softened their anti-Brexit message in recent years<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Once the party of \u201cstop Brexit\u201d, the Liberal Democrats toned down their zeal for the European Union ahead of this year\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n

The party swelled its ranks to 72 MPs<\/a> – its most ever – without drawing much attention to its original policy of rejoining the EU.<\/p>\n

But as Lib Dems gather for their autumn conference this weekend, will the B-word will be back on their lips?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The EU roadmap<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that a lot of the grassroots would have preferred the party leadership to take a slightly stronger line before the election on rejoining the EU,\u201d says Rob Harrison, the chairman of the Liberal Democrat European Group.<\/p>\n

Now the general election is behind us, Harrison says, \u201cI do think the party leadership could be bolder on Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

To the frustration of some Lib Dem Europhiles, a gradualist approach to rebuilding ties with the EU is favoured by party leader Sir Ed Davey.<\/p>\n

His 2024 election campaigning focused on a few core issues, above all social care, and given the dramatic increase in Lib Dem MPs, few would dare to say it hasn\u2019t worked.<\/p>\n

In cautious wording, the general election manifesto<\/a> laid out \u201cessential steps on the road to EU membership, which remains our longer-term objective\u201d.<\/p>\n

The party’s four-stage roadmap includes seeking to join EU programmes and eventually, the single market, which allows the free movement of goods, services and people.<\/p>\n

This weekend, there\u2019ll be another staging post on this journey, when activists vote on a policy proposal at the conference in Brighton, to give young people better access to the EU, through scrapping visa fees and joining the Erasmus Plus student scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Janey Little of Young Liberals said she’s happy with Lib Dem policy on Europe<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Before the conference, the BBC spoke to six Lib Dem activists and two MPs – and most of them seemed satisfied with the party\u2019s direction of travel on Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrexit has happened, and that\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d says Janey Little, chairwoman of the Young Liberals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we will always be at the front of the agenda of pushing for a closer relationship with Europe and rebuilding those ties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Young Liberal, Ulysse Abbate, says the party should be focusing on \u201ceasy wins\u201d, such as a youth mobility scheme between the UK and the EU.<\/p>\n

There is some discontent though.<\/p>\n

Mark Johnston is an EU policy specialist and member of the committee that prepared the party\u2019s manifesto.<\/p>\n

He says that \u201call parties have been silent on Brexit in the past few years\u201d and there were no signs the Lib Dems would change tack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be tip-toeing around this issue,\u201d Johnston says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be making it a key part of our offer in every election going forward through this cycle to distinguish ourselves from Labour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly said<\/a> he would not seek to rejoin the EU and has instead promised to “make Brexit work”.<\/p>\n

Johnston says: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to differentiate ourselves from Labour in the voter’s mind, and not just be running with a \u2018we\u2019re not the Tories’ message, because the value of that will fade very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Listening to voters<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Other Lib Dem activists do see differences with Labour, but aren\u2019t so sure voters care that much about Brexit.<\/p>\n

During the general election campaign, \u201cit wasn\u2019t really in the public\u2019s mind\u201d, says David Chalmers, a veteran pro-EU Lib Dem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really concerned about the cost of living, the NHS and sewage. If you start talking about rejoining Europe, you\u2019re not actually listening to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire, says she has been listening to lots of people in her constituency, which voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.<\/p>\n

She says locally, A&E waiting times, potholes and energy costs this winter were the issues that came up on the doorstep most frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke personally to probably more than 1,000 people during the course of the election campaign,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cI talked about Europe maybe a handful of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Babarinde – the new MP for Bournemouth – says there was no mass clamour to immediately rejoin the EU in mail from his constituents.<\/p>\n

But if voters want that eventually, \u201cour stance on Brexit was there in black and white\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone will be in any doubt where Liberal Democrat sympathies lie when it comes to Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan says her constituents aren’t talking about Brexit<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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What is in doubt, though, is the timeframe the party has in mind for rejoining the EU.<\/p>\n

Even the chairman of the Liberal Democrat European Group – which he describes as \u201cthe fan group for the EU\u201d – is managing his expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about the 2034 Parliament,\u201d Harrison says. \u201cThat is when we might feasibly get a rejoin application in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Ed has gone no way near such specifics. Rebuilding trust with European partners takes time, he often says.<\/p>\n

As long as he\u2019s in charge and the Lib Dems keep performing well in elections, the Europhile wing of the party will have to play the long game.<\/p>\n

For now, as the Lib Dems celebrate a record result in the general election, the Brexit truce is holding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images The Lib Dems have softened their anti-Brexit message in recent years Once the party of \u201cstop Brexit\u201d, the Liberal Democrats toned down their zeal for the European Union ahead of this year\u2019s general election. The party swelled its ranks to 72 MPs – its most ever – without drawing much attention to its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[217,5315,5316,155,5314,912,5313,5312],"class_list":["post-11188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-brexit","tag-dems","tag-focus","tag-game","tag-lib","tag-long","tag-proeu","tag-truce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11190,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188\/revisions\/11190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}