Jo Swinson MP, the leadership hopeful for the Liberal Democrats has said she will not rule out any future deal with either the Tories or Labour.
Swinson is running against Sir Ed Davey MP for the party’s top job as Sir Vince Cable is stepping down. Sir Ed said there is no immediate prospect of being allied with either party as they are both “led by Brexiteers.”
Swinson said in an interview with the Herald newspaper, “I have not said never in any future scenario, where things are different.
“I’m looking at the situation right now in terms of being led by Brexiters on both sides.
“The same holds for confidence and supply. We need to stop Brexit and work with people who agree with us on that, and that’s not the leadership of the Conservatives or the Labour Party.”
She added, “We have had in our history of the Liberal Democrats and predecessor parties, various points at which it has been tantalising close to totally breaking the mould of British politics; during the 1980s.
“We have an even better opportunity now and that’s what we absolutely do need to grab hold of.”
She admitted that this is “ambitious” and doesn’t “underestimate” the challenges if the party needing to boost 12 MPs by 300 to be able to form the next government.
She further addressed the issue of Scottish independence; she claims that the SNP has no mandate for a second independence referendum.
Sir Ed who was speaking on the BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme said, “We reject nationalism per se. We believe think it divides people unnecessarily.
“That’s why we believe that the SNP is not good either for the Scottish people or for the United Kingdom, and we believe Britain should stay in the EU.”
He was asked if his leadership prospects have been damaged by his prominent role in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
He repsonded, “No, because I fought the Tories day in, day out.
“We stopped them putting even heavier welfare cuts, we stopped them cutting education.”
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