LIBDEM leader Vince Cable has urged Remain voters to treat the European elections as a Brexit referendum and unite behind his party.
Criticising the Nigel Farage- fronted Brexit Party, Cable said they were telling voters “dangerous fallacies” and accused them of pedalling a “very dangerous, simplistic doctrine”.
On a visit to launch a European election poster in Scotland, Cable said that his party called for Remain-backers to vote for the LibDems’ “crystal clear” message of support for staying in the EU and for Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Farage, who now fronts the Brexit Party, is due in Edinburgh tomorrow and drew derision for their decision to charge people £2.50 a ticket to attend their rally.
Speaking in South Queensferry, Cable said: “There’s a lot of dangerous fallacies that Nigel Farage is putting around that somehow or other we can just drop out of the EU and adopt something called WTO rules. It’s completely untrue.
“There are no rules. It’s complete anarchy out there with a trade war breaking out, and these people just think that Britain can wander on its own into the wild world. It’s a very dangerous, simplistic doctrine and we’ve got to confront them.”
Cable also criticised Labour, who he said was losing support because voters “don’t want fudging on the biggest issue of a generation”.
“Labour’s losing a lot of ground because of the ambiguity that Corbyn has adopted sitting on the fence, and by contrast we’ve been crystal clear – and people want that,” he said.
Addressing LibDem campaigners and candidates, Cable added: “I think we are actually fighting these elections, unlike the Tories who have given up and the Labour Party who are just embarrassed and sitting on their hands.
“You’ve got one serious source of competition up in Scotland but we’ve got to campaign and I think we’re winning the argument and we want to get the votes as well.”
Asked about Change UK following the endorsement from that party’s former lead Scottish MEP candidate David MacDonald, the former business secretary said: “We want to continue to work with them.
“We have virtually identical policies, not just on Brexit but on a lot of other things so I welcome David’s endorsement and realism about Change UK’s prospects in these elections.”
Commenting on his defection, MacDonald said: “I’m very proud of my time working with Change UK, but it became blindingly obvious as the campaign went on that we were so close on message that we were fundamentally shooting our closest competitor in the foot in Scotland.”
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