Liberal Democrats in turmoil over Farron’s decision to support air strikes

Last Updated: December 6, 2015By

Tim-Farron-Getty The Liberal Democrats destroyed themselves by going into coalition with the Conservative Party, and now the party is tearing itself further apart. Good.

One question remains to be answered, though: Why did so many formerly Liberal Democrat constituencies go to Conservatives in the 2015 general election? If people were disgusted with the LDs’ betrayal, why did they vote for the people this betrayal helped?

Tim Farron is facing the first crisis of his leadership of the Liberal Democrats, as senior activists consider quitting the party over his decision to vote for air strikes in Syria.

Former MPs have also made it clear that they would have voted against the action, while members of the party’s powerful Federal Policy Committee (FPC) are angry that Mr Farron did not consult it about voting with the Government.

Many activists joined the Lib Dems because of the late Charles Kennedy’s opposition to the Iraq war in 2003 and were stunned when Mr Farron  did not oppose air strikes against Isis in Syria. Mr Farron was one of the six Lib Dems who backed the attacks; only his former leadership rival, Norman Lamb, and Ceredigion MP Mark Williams voted against.

Source: Syria air strikes: Lib Dem activists may quit after Tim Farron backs RAF attacks | UK Politics | News | The Independent

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

latest video

news via inbox

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

7 Comments

  1. AndyH December 6, 2015 at 2:06 pm - Reply

    The Liberal Democrats are officially pointless – they have gone from being a positive alternative to the mainstream parties, to being Tory-lite. I wonder if the party will still have seats in five years (iirc only two of their seats can be considered safe and they predictably lost their deposit in the by-election).

  2. chriskitcher December 6, 2015 at 2:51 pm - Reply

    Just goes to show that you can never ever trust a Liberal, especially one that looks as if he would be more at home doing a comedy turn in a northern working men’s club

    • John Gaines December 7, 2015 at 10:07 am - Reply

      They were OK until they merged with the last Tory Lite rubbish; good grief! who on Earth would be so stupid as to con-join with Wonkie Woy Jenkins, Shirley ‘Temple’ Black (a disgrace to Her Mother), Dr. ‘Death’ OWEN and the ineffectual Roy Rogers….maybe we could off-load our nouveau Tory Lites on this stupid dustbin of a Party.

  3. Keith December 6, 2015 at 3:06 pm - Reply

    Well I think you will find that most of the seats where the Tories came second in 2010 were Lib Dem! In 2015 the Lib Dem vote collapsed but split between different parties including the Tories. Which shows how mad the decision was to join the Tory party in office and accept no Proportional representation as the price. Unless you change the voting system the Coalition is a terrible idea for a “centre” party. A centre party has no class identity and once it chooses the side it is on it falls apart. I anticipated this result at the time. I have been baffled by the inability of most Liberals to see the obvious staring them in the face.

  4. Jo December 6, 2015 at 3:24 pm - Reply

    My MP Mark Williams (Lib Dem, Ceredigion) voted against air strikes, one of only two Lib Dems to do so as far as I know.
    I wrote him an email of thanks for doing so, even though I don’t agree with his politics in general.

  5. NMac December 7, 2015 at 10:17 am - Reply

    Lib Dems? Didn’t realise they were still around.

  6. mrmarcpc December 7, 2015 at 2:38 pm - Reply

    Cleggy Jr, he’ll be gone within five years!

Leave A Comment