Lib Dem President Refutes Claim Former Change UK MPs Are 'Jumping Ship'
9 June 2019, 17:19
The President of the Liberal Democrats refutes the suggestion former Change UK MPs are in secret talks to join the party.
Former Change UK leader Heidi Allen and co-founder Sarah Wollaston are not in 'secret talks' about joining the Liberal Democrats, says the party President.
Baroness Sal Brinton told Maajid Nawaz it was "not true" that the Liberal Democrats were "about the expand the number of MPs by taking people on board", after reports suggested the pair could join her party.
"There are conversations going on about how the MPs of different parties can work together and we've been very open about that in the past - those continue.
"Clearly last week when six of the 11 Change UK MPs left the party they got a lot of coverage and I think an automatic assumption by journalists they would immediately jump ship to us.
But that's not certainly happening, I'm not aware of it, it's not true at the moment."
Baroness Brinton added: "We would always welcome anybody who wants to join the party, who shares our values and shares our aims.
"But for somebody who's an MP from another party, the relationship is clearly more complicated and I'm certainly not aware of secret talks at this stage about joining but there are certainly talks amongst our MPs and some of their MPs in the same way that our MPs talk to MPs of other parties."
Watch above.
