Lib Dems ‘will stop Brexit if they win a general election’, says leader Jo Swinson

'If people put the stop-Brexit party into government, then stopping Brexit is exactly what they will get.'

Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson has declared she will revoke Article 50 if they win the next general election.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she said there ‘needs to be a way out’ of the ‘mess’ caused by Brexit.

She said: ‘The policy we are debating a conference today is very clear.

‘If the Liberal Democrats, at the next election win a majority, if people put into government, as a majority government, the stop-Brexit party, then stopping Brexit is exactly what they will get.

‘Yes, we will revoke Article 50.’

She continued: ‘Everybody can see that we are stuck. Brexit is in a mess. There needs to be a way out of that.’

The Lib Dems are currently experiencing a surge in membership numbers, with 18 MPs now sitting in the Commons.

In recent weeks, seven MPs have defected to the party, including former Tory Dr Phillip Lee, and ex-Labour Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger.

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Sam Gyimah became the latest MP to sign up today after losing the Tory party whip by rebelling against Boris Johnson to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

He told BBC News that the Conservatives had become a ‘hard Brexit party’, adding that the ‘Brexiteers have won’.

Gyimah continued: ‘If I want to fight for the values for which I came into politics, the values of tolerance, the values of being sensible and pragmatic and acting in the interest of the country, then the Liberal Democrats is where I can do that from.’

Swinson, the party’s first female leader, has been vocal in her belief that neither Boris nor Jeremy Corbyn are capable of leading the country.

She told the Guardian this week: ‘The fundamental fault-line now is between liberal and authoritarian values, and as Liberal Democrats we are clearly on one side of that.

‘Both Labour and the Conservatives are having to straddle that fault-line. That is why those two parties are creaking at the seams.’

Boris lost his majority of one earlier this month when Dr Lee crossed the Commons and defected to the Lib Dems.

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In a letter of explanation, the MP for Bracknell said it was ‘no longer possible to serve my constituents’ and the country’s best interests as a Conservative.

He said: ‘‘The Brexit process has helped to transform this once great party into something more akin to a narrow faction, where an individual’s “conservatism” is measured by how recklessly one wishes to leave the European Union.’

However, Dr Lee’s arrival in the Lib Dems has prompted outrage from some LGBT+ campaigners who have pointedly referenced his poor record on gay rights.

He previously ran a campaign to block migrants living with HIV from entering the UK and did not vote in favour of same-sex marriage.

LGBT+ Liberal Democrats chairperson Jennie Riggs resigned from the party in protest, describing Dr Lee as a ‘homophobe and a xenophobe’.

Chief whip Alistair Carmichael has since defended Dr Lee’s inclusion in the party, but admitted they could have handled the situation better.