Express & Star

Lock up your doors... the Lib Dems are coming

Here's a question to mull over for a couple of minutes: to which political party do the most firebrand of politicians belong?

Published
Don't let the smiles deceive you – the Lib Dems are back, but with added menace

The obvious answer would be the Brexit Party, with Nigel Farage and Ann Widdecombe perpetually on the attack in front of a big cohort of MEPs who are not exactly shy and retiring.

Labour has its fair share of wildcards, with an increasingly grumpy Jeremy Corbyn never one to shy away from a good row, and MPs such as John Mann always looking to cause one.

The Tories are about to enter a new era under Boris, the self-appointed bringer of Brexit, whose supporters believe will put a bit of lead back in the old blue pencil.

And let's not forget the SNP, fronted in Westminster by former banker Ian Blackford, who is undoubtedly one of the world's most angry men, and in Scotland by that noted purveyor of anti-Brexit hate-tweets, Nicola Sturgeon.

However, right now they all appear relatively calm and measured in comparison to the ballsy and bad-ass Lib Dems.

Yes, you read it right, the party of the liberal middle classes, of primary school teachers and Volvo drivers, is taking on a new form as it attempts to finally put to bed shame of its role in the 2010 coalition government.

Gone is the timid approach that saw Nick Clegg foolishly stumble into bed with David Cameron's Tories, blissfully unaware of the disaster that lay ahead.

Evidence of this change in tactics was there for all to see recently when a rowdy gang of Lib Dem MEPs' bum rushed the show in Brussels with a rude word emblazoned across their t-shirts.

And its about to become ever clearer once the result of the leadership election that nobody is talking about is revealed later this month.

For those who don't read The Guardian, it's a battle between Jo Swinson, the MP for East Dunbartonshire, and Ed Davey, who represents Kingston and Surbiton.

Both candidates are veterans of the coalition, both have been booted out of Parliament and then won their seats back, and both are pro-EU to the point of being obsessive.

Outgoing leader Vince Cable has always come across as the type of kind and gentle grandad figure that Mr Corbyn used to pretend to be.

The economics professor is the sort who would ply you with Werther's Original while delivering a short lecture on the history of local authority budget constraints in Latvia.

But Vince is on the way out. He's yesterday's man, and his replacement is likely to go on the offensive.

And for the first time in years the Lib Dems have a platform to work with.

In May's European elections in the West Midlands, the party picked up 219,982 votes for a 16.3 per cent share of the ballot – just a shade behind Labour and a mile ahead of the Tories.

An MEP, Phil Bennion – a former Staffordshire councillor and one-time advisor to ex-Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy – was elected, returning to Brussels having lost his seat in 2014.

(Incidentally, he's no shrinking violent himself, losing his rag in TV jousts with politicians from opposition parties and seemingly always happy to rant about how Brexit will "destroy" UK farming).

Overall the party went from one seat to 16, finishing second in the country behind the Brexit Party with nearly 3.4 million votes.

Meanwhile, Change UK – a 2019 version of the Lib Dems that was pretty much the same as the old version – was summarily slayed, leaving a dejected Anna Soubry to fret about the status of her regular slot on Question Time.

It is a revival that is driven primarily by Brexit, with Mr Cable wise enough to exploit a gap in the market for a pro-EU party created by Mr Corbyn's dither and delay.

But if it is to translate into success at the ballot box on home soil, then something extra is required, particularly with a first-past-the-post electoral system geared towards shutting out smaller parties.

The Lib Dems held 62 seats in the Commons prior to the 2010 election, a figure which collapsed to just eight in 2015 and now stands at 12.

It faces an uphill battle to become relevant again in the UK, and appears to be ready to embrace the new kind of politics in order to get things done.

The party is generally omitted from debates regarding the rise of populism, yet in the wake of the EU referendum, its strategy may well be. 'if you can't beat em, join 'em'.

Both Mrs Swinson and Mr Davey agree that politics in this country is broken, both appear to think that remaining in the EU will be the start of efforts to fix it.

They won't admit it publicly, but they are matching what they call 'rhetoric' from the Leave side with rhetoric of their own.

Mrs Swinson has been talking about winning a general election and becoming Prime Minister. Mr Davey is prone to eyebrow raising comments such as yesterday's gem that "the tectonic plates of UK politics are shifting in our favour".

Neither candidate is afraid of being confrontational, an absolute necessity in today's political bearpit.

Whichever of them takes the crown will need to do two things. Firstly, embrace the fact that in less enlightened times, a little grandstanding goes a long way.

Then they can focus on how to sideline the vote loser that is Chuka Umunna.

Sort out the basics, and maybe, just maybe, the Lib Dems can truly make a stand.