Lib Dem candidate defends party’s policy to stop Brexit

WARRINGTON South Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate Ryan Bate has defended his party’s clear message that they want to stop Brexit after being challenged by the local Warrington 4 Brexit group.

The Warrington 4 Brexit group called upon Cllr Bate, who is also a borough Cllr for Grappenhall & Thelwall, to justify his party’s policy to revoke Article 50 completely, ignoring the result of the 2016 EU referendum.

A Warrington 4 Brexit spokesperson said: “Our members are outraged at the latest Lib-Dem policy, confirmed at their conference, which is to ride roughshod over 17.4 million voters and overturn the result of the 2016 referendum without even calling for a second one. This policy is profoundly anti-democratic.”

The spokesperson continued: “Councillor Bate has been very vocal on local issues which affect Warrington South voters, but as a parliamentary candidate he now needs to address publicly his party’s arrogant and divisive promise to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit entirely.

“In the unlikely event that the Lib Dems were to win a majority at the next general election, there is no way they could claim they had a mandate to stop Brexit, since it would no doubt be on a fraction of the votes which Leave won in the 2016 Referendum. We remind Councillor Bate that Warrington voted by 54.3% to leave the EU on a very high turnout of over 73%. The Liberal Democrats’ decision to ignore that vote is a massive insult to the 62,487 Warringtonians who voted Leave and believe that their votes would be respected. It is now Councillor Bate’s duty to give us some explanation for this policy”.

But Cllr Bate responded: “The Liberal Democrats are clear that we want to stop Brexit. We believe that Brexit will profoundly damage our country. Evidence from the Yellowhammer papers clearly supports this.

“At the next election, voters in Warrington will have a clear choice – the Liberal Democrats will bring a swift end to the Brexit chaos. There is nothing undemocratic about a General Election and if a majority Liberal Democrat government is elected, we will Revoke Article 50. In any other outcome, we continue to call for a People’s Vote. The best deal for Warrington will always be to Remain.”

Meanwhile a poll being run on the warrington-worldwide facebook page has generated a huge response generating around 30,000 votes in a 48 hour period.

With over 2,000 comments, 1,3k shares and a reach of over 100,000 people, the poll currently suggests the majority of people are now in favour of Remain.

It has been shared extensively by Pro-remain and pro-Brexit groups.

The poll. which is running until October 31st currently shows that if people had a chance to vote now, on a straight Remain or Leave, the majority would be in favour of Remain.

This has also been reflected in a national poll by Politico.