Liberal news for a more liberal world
The youth wing of the Labour Party has come under fire today for blasting pro-EU campaigners trying to persuade Jeremy Corbyn to back a People’s Vote. In a tweet published last night, Young Labour accused People’s Vote supporters of being “a clique” who were trying to “undermine Jeremy Corbyn”, continuing in the vein of supporters of the embattled Labour leader who view any disagreement with him as a secret plot…
New analysis has suggested that a People’s Vote – which many insiders believe is the only Brexit option which could command a Parliamentary majority – could be held within four months, rather than the year suggested by Theresa May and Whitehall. David Blunkett, former Labour Home Secretary, told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that the requisite legislation could be passed within weeks, with the referendum able to be held by May. He…
Jeremy Corbyn has once again dodged the issue of a People’s Vote today in the aftermath of his failed attempt to bring down the government last night. Despite democratically-decided Labour Party policy being to call for a People’s Vote if efforts to force a general election were unsuccessful, Corbyn has instead insisted that he would try to call further votes of no confidence, and has ducked questions of when he…
Brexit could lose the British economy £54 billion and 500,000 jobs by 2030, shocking new independent research commissioned by the Mayor of London has revealed. The study, which was conducted by Cambridge Econometrics, considered the potential economic damage of Brexit across multiple potential scenarios, including the ‘Hard Brexit’ outcome which senior Conservative figures have been hinting at recently. While the report found that every Brexit scenario would seriously harm the…
Nigel Farage has today shocked the political world by publicly calling for a second EU referendum during an appearance on TV talk show “The Wright Stuff”. Expressing his wish for the issue to be settled once and for all, Farage, the former leader of UKIP, who was accused of dog-whistle racism during the EU referendum campaign, said “I’ve reached the point in thinking that we should have a second referendum…
The youth wing of the Labour Party, Young Labour, has today wholly abandoned the principles of internationalism which had been a major part of the party’s platform for decades, by calling for unilateral withdrawal from NATO, scrapping freedom of movement, and voting against a motion calling for a two-state solution in the Middle East. The motion to unilaterally withdraw from NATO called the organisation – widely credited with maintaining peace…
In a surprising development today, the Liberal Democrats became the UK’s second largest national party, overtaking the Conservatives, amidst the revelation by a senior Conservative activist that Tory membership had fallen to around 100,000, below the Liberal Democrats’ 105,000. The news means Sir Vince Cable’s party are behind only the Labour Party in terms of the major national parties. The SNP have around 115,000 members, but only stand in Scotland,…
Momentum, the pro-Corbyn faction within the Labour Party, has been operating to block a vote at Labour Party Conference on whether or not Labour should back continued membership of the single market, it has emerged. Emails revealed by Labour member Richard Angell have shown that Momentum high-ups have been claiming that Brexit motions don’t need to be voted for in the Labour priority ballot, and have recommended voting for four non-Brexit…
Sir Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is the most popular party leader in Britain, according to a new poll released today by Ipsos MORI. Outstripping -17% and -3% net approval ratings for Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn respectively, Sir Vince’s approval ratings are almost balanced, a highly unusual feat in British politics. An internal Liberal Democrat source said that “this is testament to Vince’s strong leadership and…
After a month off for the Parliamentary recess, The Torch is back. Our founding principle was to rebalance the news so that liberal perspectives weren’t forgotten, and over the past few months, we like to think we’ve begun to do that. And for the new political year, the first task for this has been providing coverage of the Liberal Democrats’ conference in Bournemouth, where Sir Vince Cable was giving his…