Corbyn is ‘Brexit by nature’, claims Swinson
Jeremy Corbyn is “Brexit by nature”, Jo Swinson has said today, as she laid the blame for the 2016 referendum result at the Labour leader’s feet.
Speaking at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Bournemouth, Swinson damned both sometime-coalition partners the Conservatives, and would-be ‘government of national unity’ partners Labour.
Read more: Another former minister has joined the Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dem leader told delegates she was “standing here as your candidate for Prime Minister because people across Britain deserve a better choice than an entitled Etonian or a 1970s socialist”, adding: “When the General Election comes, I cannot wait to take on the collective forces of nationalism and populism that will be standing on that debate stage -Johnson, Farage…and Corbyn.”
Swinson said: “If [Corbyn] had campaigned to Remain in 2016 with half of the energy he put into the 2017 election, we may have seen a different result.
“Then the day after the referendum, he said we should trigger Article 50 immediately. He whipped his MPs to vote for it. And even now, when faced with all the clear and obvious dangers that Brexit brings, Jeremy Corbyn still insists that if Labour win a General Election, they will negotiate their own Brexit deal to take us out of the EU.
“Nigel Farage might be Brexit by name, but it is very clear that Jeremy Corbyn is Brexit by nature.”
Her speech comes days after party members voted overwhelmingly to make it policy to revoke Article 50 if the Liberal Democrats secure a majority in the next General Election.
Swinson, who praised the many MPs to defect to the party as well as the many new members, also set out the party’s climate change priorities, which includes the creation of a Climate Change Investment Bank “to channel investment into green projects and away from fossil fuels”.
Main image: Getty