VINCE Cable has called for a second referendum on Brexit, but has insisted that absolutely under no circumstances should there be another vote on Scottish independence.
Speaking to BBC Scotland ahead of the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth this weekend, the party leader was asked if he would support a second referendum on Scotland’s constitutional question: “My party believes this is unnecessary, the debate has already been had,” he said.
“We are arguing for a referendum on Europe, but the context is rather different.
“We’re not arguing for a second referendum, we’re arguing a first referendum on the facts.
“Once the negotiation process has been completed, when we understand what will Brexit involves, people should make a choice; should they progress on with it, or do they want an exit for Brexit?
“My reading of the mood in Scotland, as in London, and other parts of the UK is that there will be a very strong mood to exit Brexit."
He also called for the devolution settlement to be protected, accusing the Tories of underestimating the “complexities” of what Brexit meant for Scotland and Wales.
The Lib Dems head to Bournemouth after what was, by all accounts, a shocker of a General Election, except in Scotland.
They scraped less than five per cent of the vote in around 60 per cent of all seats in the UK, losing 375 of their deposits.
In 2010, they kept every single one of their deposits.
However, there was something of a Lib Dem resurgence north of the Border, where they managed to win four seats, though their share of the vote slipped form 7.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
Scottish leader Willie Rennie declared that the party was on the up.
Rennie said: “Scottish Liberal Democrats have seen significant gains over the last few years.
"We are growing again and we have momentum. We have some fantastic new elected representatives who are going to drive the party forward. We have a new leader in Vince whose experience as an important economic thinker is a real asset.
“The Conservatives are struggling in Westminster, Labour is leaderless in Scotland and the SNP are heading down the polling ladder.
Liberal Democrats, however, can make a real difference to the future of our country.”
Not everyone in the party is as upbeat as Rennie.
North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said his party were “floundering in the single digits, struggling to assert our relevance in a volatile political climate.”
He wrote: “Liberals have to ask ourselves why we have been so roundly rejected at the last two elections, why our very existence is being so embarrassingly ignored at a time when the need for a progressive Liberal force, which could genuinely compete for power, is greater than ever.
“Corbyn offers no solutions to the big challenges we face. But it has become painfully obvious that many people simply do not know what the Liberal Democrats stand for.
“We have failed to articulate how our principles are relevant to people’s lives, their concerns and anxieties. We came across to many of our natural supporters as arrogantly dismissing their views. I met countless people who felt that we regarded them as stupid for voting for Brexit. This is never a good position for a political party.”
Former leader Paddy Ashdown suggested the party needed to be more radical as it was failing to connect with a “vast sea of people who share our beliefs find themselves voiceless and silent."
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