Lib Dems challenge SNP to give EU membership commitment

Tim Farron has challenged the SNP to commit to taking an independent Scotland back into the EU before his first campaign stop in Scotland.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron speaks in St Albans, as he has insisted the council results show the party will make big gains in the General Election. Picture: Philip Toscano/PA Wire

The Liberal Democrat leader accused the SNP of “equivocating and dithering” over their stance on Europe out of fear of losing seats to the Conservatives in north-east Scotland.

Mr Farron also claimed Theresa May had turned the Conservatives into an “English nationalist party” that posed a risk to the Union.

The Lib Dems are defending their one Scottish MP after a near-wipeout by the SNP which saw them supplanted by the nationalists as the third party in the House of 
Commons.

Ahead of campaign stops in three key target seats, Mr 
Farron said his party
could spark a revival by
winning multiple seats north of the Border despite mixed results in local elections last week where the party lost councillors across the UK.

Mr Farron will ask voters to reject keeping “another cheerleader for independence” as their MP.

The Lib Dem battlebus will start the day in East Dunbartonshire, where former Lib Dem minister Jo Swinson is seeking to unseat the SNP’s John Nicolson, before heading
to North East Fife, formerly held by Menzies Campbell.

Mr Farron will end the day in Edinburgh, where the Lib Dems added three councillors last week and topped the polls in wards making up the target seat of Edinburgh West.

“If you look at the vote shares and seats gained, they fall exactly where we are the challengers, not just in East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh West and North East Fife, but also in the Highlands too, where the results were very encouraging,” Mr Farron said of last week’s vote.

He denied that the SNP’s larger group of MPs meant they were better placed to hold the Government to account on Brexit, and claimed the nationalists were backing away from their support for Europe “because of the fear of what it might be doing to their own supporter base in places like Moray”.

Mr Farron highlighted the strong challenge to senior SNP MPs from the Tories in areas where support for Brexit was strong – such as Angus Robertson in Moray, Alex Salmond in Gordon and Pete Wishart in Perth and North Perthshire. And he said a pledge signed by two north-east SNP MPs which calls for rejection of the EU common fisheries policy undermined the SNP’s support for membership of the single market.

He said: “Over the last two or three months the SNP have been equivocating heavily on the issue of whether an independent, separate Scotland would be in the EU, and even now whether it would be in the single market.

“They’re dithering now, and the potential for betrayal of those pro-Remain voters in Scotland who had hoped the SNP would be their voice is there.”

Mr Farron attacked the Prime Minister’s rhetoric on the EU in recent days and said her claim that European leaders were trying to influence the UK election was “contrived”.

“That is incredibly regrettable and it is beneath the office of Prime Minister. I suspect in the weeks to come it will 
seriously rebound on her.”

Mr Farron claimed the Conservatives had become a party of English nationalism in order to win over Ukip voters.

“I’m proud to be a patriot. There’s everything right about being a patriot, loving your country, loving your fellow people, wanting to be proud of your country.

“But I think nationalism is something very different to patriotism, I think it is divisive and I think the Conservatives are undoubtedly an English nationalist party.

“Ukip have lost all their seats but gained control of the Conservative Party.”

Speaking just before the result of the French presidential election was confirmed, Mr Farron claimed victories for Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau in Canada were “a reminder that it’s possible for a progressive, liberal movement in an election to win the emotional argument as well as the intellectual one”.

Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s candidate in North East Fife and Europe spokesman, said: “The SNP could not be any clearer on our commitment to Scotland’s EU membership and we will provide a strong voice for Scotland and for pro-Europeans across the UK.

“When it comes to standing up to the Tories, people know that they cannot trust the Lib Dems, which is why so many Liberals in North East Fife are backing the SNP as the only party who can beat the Tories.”