Tim Farron’s phone has been busy

Jeremy Corbyn faced a threat of Labour defections today after days of turmoil over his leadership.

In a dramatic interview, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron revealed he has been called since last Saturday’s election result by Labour figures distraught about their new boss.

Mr Farron told the Evening Standard: “I’ve had various unsolicited texts, some of them over the weekend, where I felt like I was being an agony aunt rather than anything else.

“People who have been members of the [Labour] party for as long as I’ve been a member of mine who feel that they don’t recognise their party anyone and feel deeply distressed.” [Evening Standard]

Meanwhile over in The Guardian, Tim Farron has written:

In a world in which metaphors are cheap and superlatives often superfluous, I hope I am not overstating the case by suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn’s election to the leadership of the Labour party has sent shockwaves throughout Westminster and politics in general. And for my party, the Liberal Democrats, it potentially changes everything…

As we approach our party conference, I have no interest in engaging in the old knockabout routines. I want to take the opportunity to talk about what it means to be a liberal, where we stand, and why those who share our values need to join us.

For the past 200 years we have relied on the nation state as the core unit of power to direct and shape our lives.

And yet, the limitations of individual states when it comes to the challenges presented by multinational businesses and internationalised markets, by non-state-driven terror organisations, by climate change and by mass migration are becoming increasingly apparent.

And the pace of change is only just beginning to heat up…

[The] vision of government – as an enabler, a creator of opportunity, a guarantor of freedoms, a voice for the powerless – is a liberal vision. It is what has prompted my call for Britain to opt into the EU scheme providing homes for the refugees currently stranded across our continent. It is what drives our party’s wholehearted commitment to the EU in the referendum.

But it is also what places housing at the very top of my agenda, as a secure home is the entry ticket to a job, a community, and individual and collective economic prosperity.