I’m immensely proud of how we’ve stood up for our values over Brexit
Here’s the email that’s gone out from me to party members today. If you’ve not received this email, or you know other members who haven’t, I hope this troubleshooting guide will help. Given the number of important emails coming up in the next few months, such as over voting for party leader, it is well worth putting in a bit of time to help crack problems for anyone not receiving such emails.
For the last four years, the Liberal Democrats have proudly fought to stop Brexit.
I am immensely proud of everything we did. We stood up for our values. We campaigned so hard. But I also accept that at 11pm tonight, we will no longer be members of the European Union.
Our European story is not over. Tomorrow our fight continues, to make sure Britain has the closest possible relationship with our allies in Europe.
Today, I want to take stock of everything we did achieve in our fight to stop Brexit.
When the results of the European referendum were announced on that sad day in June 2016, we knew that something must be done. Our leader at the time, Tim Farron, did not wait to say that we deserved a vote on the final Brexit deal.
We were a lone voice at first. But more and more people joined our cause, to call for a People’s Vote on the final deal.
Our membership surged to the highest numbers in our party’s history.
We backed the cross-party People’s Vote campaign. Its rallies attracted hundreds of thousands of people, making them the biggest marches since the protests against the Iraq war.
Our MPs worked across parties in the Commons and the Lords to inflict more than 30 defeats on the Conservative government’s Brexit bills.
We stopped a catastrophic no deal and we stopped the government charging EU citizens to apply to stay in the UK.
Last year, we went into the European elections with an unapologetic message on Brexit.
I’m so proud of that campaign. We fought unashamedly for our liberal, progressive values, and we made a strong case for why the UK should continue to be members of the EU.
We beat both Labour and the Conservatives – something we had not done since 1910! – and we went from 1 to 16 Members of the European Parliament.
Our MEPs may have only been in Brussels for six months, but they’ve achieved so much and flown the flag for British European values.
To Catherine, Caroline, Antony, Barbara, Bill, Chris, Dinesh, Irina, Jane, Judith, Louisa, Lucy, Martin, Phil, Shaffaq and Shelia, thank you. You are all superstars.
In the following months, eight courageous MPs left the safety of a large political party to stand with us, and stand up for our place in the EU.
To Chuka, Angela, Luciana, Sam, Heidi, Sarah, Philip and Antoinette – thank you. You will all go down in Liberal Democrat history.
And in between all that, we won by-elections in Brecon and Radnorshire and Shetland, and we also saw our best ever local election results, gaining over 700 seats and taking control of 11 councils around the country last Spring.
Through all those successes one thing was constant: we couldn’t have done it without you.
So the biggest thank you of all must go to you. Our members have been tirelessly fighting to stop Brexit, and you made all of this possible.
And you give me hope for the future.
Brexit was never just about Europe. It was about who we are. Who we aspire to be. What we want our country to become.
So let’s be part of shaping that future together.
There are many more elections coming up. Local and London elections this May, Scottish Parliament, Senedd and local elections next year, and in 2022 another round of local elections. Then a General Election in four years time.
We’re started from the grassroots up, to build fair, progressive, green and liberal society, at every level of government in the UK.
And I want you to stand for office, and help us put our values into practice.
Will you apply to become a candidate for the Liberal Democrats, and be part of our future?
[Apply to become a candidate for the Liberal Democrats here.]
(You can find out more about being a candidate for the party here: www.libdems.org.uk/being-a-candidate)
With best wishes,
Mark Pack
President of the Liberal Democrats
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Brexit now has the potential to go hideously wrong. We already know there will be essentially no economic growth in the next three years; there are likely to be more severe shocks than that to follow.
Let us never forget that the House of Commons has always listened in a real crisis. Otherwise Churchill and his one dozen supporters would never have convinced the appeasing 90% of the House in 1939 that we had to stand and fight Hitler.
So in this Parliament, as they critique the forthcoming trade negotiations, the role of our LibDem MPs could be just as crucial to Britain’s economic survival as Churchill and his friends were to our physical survival eighty years ago. Don’t read Boris on Churchill, read Roy Jenkins: what is needed is huge energy, intelligence and occasional oratory. Combined with steadfastness of purpose, the capacity to listen, judgement of character and absence of rancour.
Proud of the values, perhaps proud of trying but surely not proud of “how” – we failed.
This parliament is unique in that Boris Johnson required every person to sign a pledge before they were allowed to stand as candidates for the Conservative Party. I have no idea of how binding and how extensive the wording of that pledge was, and I do think it is a matter of Public Interest to know if they will be allowed any role whatsoever in the scrutiny of clauses in future government legislation.
I do consider that it renders the general election December 12th 2019 invalid; voters for Conservatives were choosing people whose first loyalty was not for the Constituents but for Boris Johnson. Lots of moderate Conservative MPs who have knowledge about the complexity of enacting Laws stood down; the new ones elected to “Get Brexit done” clearly think slogans are adequate. I doubt that they will have read the drafts of Agreements scrupulously published by Barnier over the last 3 years.
Yes I am proud of the Liberal Party but we have not proved to be able to teach the general public the practical realities and we MUST find a way of doing so.