Political

Lib Dem councillor quits over party’s anti-Brexit stance

A long-standing Liberal Democrat quitting over the party’s strongly pro-Remain stance is understandable. The party has, after all, staked out a very strong position (one which is right for both substantive reasons and also the party’s own electoral strategy).

What is rather more puzzling, however, is when someone joins the party after we adopted such a stance, and then later leaves again complaining about that stance.

On which point, this news comes from Rochdale:

A Liberal Democrat councillor has stunned her colleagues by quitting to join The Brexit Party – just six months after defecting to them from Labour.

Coun Kath Nickson now says the Lib Dems’ staunch pro-remain stance goes against her beliefs…

She said: “The national Lib Dem policy of remaining in the European Union is against what I believe in. [Manchester Evening News]

Puzzling, though it is good to see that she added:

I have been treated in an outstanding way by the local Liberal Democrats.

7 responses to “Lib Dem councillor quits over party’s anti-Brexit stance”

  1. Strange that she should have not known about the party’s strong stance before she joined it. Glad she was treated properly and hopefully will continue to be.

  2. We had 4 Liberal Democrat councillors voted Leave. One didn’t stand for re election in May. 3 remain in the party but are still Leavers.

  3. Why join knowing the parties stance? We joined because of the stance the Lib Dems took on Europe.

  4. A small minority of Lib Dem members are Leavers.

    They should be respected. We need to be tolerant towards dissent.

    There is nothing inherently illiberal about being sceptical about the EU:

    :

  5. we are elected as a person, not a party…. Our electoral system elects the individual, who is allowed to display which club s/he belongs to..(not sure about the Euro election party lists system though)..
    And I thought that as an internationalist party it would be a tautology to be a Liberal-Democrat ‘Leaver’, it should not be possible, especially as all our policies are fact-based and principled.

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