“The prime minister asked for a mandate for a hard Brexit. And the people of Britain blew her the largest raspberry possible.”
In an exclusive interview with Prospect, Paddy Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, offered his take on Thursday's staggering general election—and the woman who called it. “What kind of authority has she to negotiate in Europe now? They’ll treat her as a joke, and rightly so.”
Ashdown, MP for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001, and Lib Dem leader for 11 years, is a die-hard pro-European, and his party has aimed to hoover up the disillusioned 48 per cent since the Brexit vote last year. This result has come as good news: thanks to the new make-up of MPs, “There’s only one kind of Brexit that’s likely to get through the house of Commons—and that’s a soft one.” The "Norway option," including single market membership, is back on the table.
Theresa May, having called the election to secure a larger majority ahead of Brexit negotiations, has lost 13 seats, while the Labour Party has defied all expectations to gain 30. Ashdown’s own party gained 4 MPs, rising to 12 in total. The Tories now plan to form an alliance with Northern Ireland's right-wing Democratic Unionist Party.
Was he surprised when he saw the exit poll? “Well,” he says, a chuckle in his voice, “I wasn’t ‘eat my hat’ surprised.” In 2015, Ashdown famously said that he would eat his hat if that year's exit poll—which forecast catastrophic losses for the Liberal Democrats—was proved right. In the event, it actually over-estminated his party's performance.
"Vast swathes of ordinary Britons, the moderate progressives, have nobody to represent them”The results this time around, however, were “encouraging." The party has “increased its numbers by 50 per cent. OK, from a low base, but that’s steady progress.” Among the intake are former Lib Dem MPs Jo Swinson, Vince Cable and Ed Davey. But there were some high profile losses, too. I asked Ashdown how he felt when he saw that Nick Clegg had lost his seat: “Oh immensely sad. I mean, he’s a very powerful voice.”
“This country’s now suffered twice from two conservative PMs who forced us to have votes that were really not wanted, in the interest of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, one politician who has always put the interests of the country before party has been thrown out of office. It’s not a very good comment on the state of our politics.”
And what, exactly, is the state of our politics? Here, Ashdown was gloomy. "I’ve never known the country so polarised. The idea that people are represented by the two extremist parties that were on offer on Thursday—we’ve got a Conservative Party that is indistinguishable now in policy terms from Ukip, and we have a Labour Party which is an old-fashioned socialist party. Vast swathes of ordinary Britons, the moderate progressives, have nobody to represent them.” They are, according to Ashdown, "the new voiceless.”
In the early hours of Friday morning, as it became clear that May's party had fallen short of a majority, talk began to pick up of another Lib-Con coalition, as between 2010 and 2015. Farron was quick to rule this out and, according to Ashdown, he was quite right to do so. "Do you mean a coalition with Mrs May? You must be joking. Coaltion with Jeremy Corbyn? No. These parties are on the extreme wings of British politics."
It is likely that the party is scarred from its last period in government, when compromises alienated vast numbers of previous supporters. But if they're not in coalition, or the official opposition, how can they make a difference? “I think we’ll do what we’ve always done, ” he says. The Lib Dems should try and "bring in the millions out there" who occupy the centreground.
As we wrapped-up, I asked him whether May will resign—despite her insistence to the contrary. “I’m not prepared to speculate on the inner workings of the Conservative Party, that’s something I’d rather not know very much about.” He laughs. But indulges in a little bit of speculation nonetheless: “I do not see how she can survive.”
