Lib Dems carry on making fools of themselves as Tories reject push for early election

Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson


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On 27 October, in a desperate attempt to undermine Labour and push their pro-Remain platform, the Lib Dems joined forces with the SNP to call for an earlier general election.

However, Conservatives have since rejected this proposal:

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“Political suicide”

As the BBC reported, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said this plan was to ensure an election “on parliament’s terms not on the prime minister’s”. Blackford said:

Opposition parties will not be bullied by a prime minister who has shown utter contempt for Parliament, and who has attempted to railroad through his damaging deal without a shred of scrutiny or due process.

It’s possible that they also pushed for the slightly earlier date of 9 December over fears the EU might grant a short Brexit extension. This shorter extension could mean more pressure on MPs to approve Johnson’s proposed deal.

However, this move has still been widely criticised:

It also came as a bit of a surprise to some, that the SNP ‘teamed up’ with the Lib Dems:

The Lib Dems, it seems, refuse to accept that the Conservatives aren’t interested in any agenda other than their own:

In fact, The Canary’s Kerry-Anne Mendoza described this move as “political suicide”:

Yellow Tories

As The Canary‘s Emily Apple has said, “If you’re going to vote Lib Dem, you might as well vote Tory”.

Many people appear to be in agreement with this sentiment. It’s clear that they see past Swinson’s desperate attempts to hold on to power by any means necessary:

Calling the shots

It’s clear that Johnson wants to call a general election before ruling out a no-deal Brexit. Because if Johnson were to win an election with no-deal still on the table, he would have the green light to push this through parliament – a move that would be catastrophic for British people:

Labour won’t back a 12 December election unless no-deal is off the table, and the final decision will be based on the vote in parliament on 28 October. As Corbyn and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott have made clear, Labour will back a general election once Johnson rules out any possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

The Lib Dems, meanwhile, just seem determined to create even more chaos.

Featured image via Wikimedia – Sophie Brown / Flickr – Annika Haas / Flickr – Liberal Democrats

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  • Show Comments

    1. What workers’ rights are those, then? We have anti-union laws, zero hour contracts and the unemployed forced to work for dole. All this while inside the EU which did nothing to stop it, nor the merciless cruelty of coalition then Tory sanctions against Britain’s poorest–all while the EU itself handed handed out huge land grants to Britain’s richest.

      Less workers rights and more welfare for the rich. That’s your EU neoliberal model right there. That contrast.

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      1. The richest get the land grants via Defra and it’s they who decide who gets what – same diff fishing quotas. Re the rest I almost completely agree except you’re forgetting that not all EU countries ‘do’ neoliberalism.
        It’s the neoliberalism that’s the problem and that goes for so many countries outside the EU too.
        However there are still some workers’ rights in the UK – and you’ve no doubt noticed that despite anti-union laws unions have been helping agency & migrant workers to achieve better pay and conditions.
        One thing’s for certain – a hard Johnson ‘Brexit’ would mean no workers’ rights at all – and if you think it’s bad now you ain’t seen nothing yet.

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