Lib Dem Layla Moran: "I nearly left the party over tuition fees"

9 November 2019, 12:02

The Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate told Matt Frei that she wasn't a fan of a lot of what the party did during the Coalition.

Matt Frei said to Layla Moran: "So as you know, you field candidates and people are looking at your campaign, their long term memory will kick in and they will remember what the Coalition Government was like.

"Now, this is what John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, had to say at a speech in Liverpool this week. He said 'I just say to those Greens and others who are getting into bed with the Lib Dems, I remember what the Lib Dems did when they were in government.

"I say go and ask any disabled person in this country who went through the brutality of the work capability assessment, for instance.' So he's got a fair point there, hasn't he?

There are lots of things that you signed up to in the government of austerity under David Cameron, that you are now perhaps hoping that people would have forgotten."

Moran replied: " Well, first of all, I mean, Jo has been pretty clear about this, that there were things that we shouldn't have done in Coalition. She's accepted that and we've got a brand new leader, I wasn't elected until 2017."

Matt asked whether we can trust the Liberal Democrats to keep their promises.

She replied: "We are being very, very careful about what we promise. I mean, we learned our lesson.

"Believe me. I nearly left the party over tuition fees, I was no fan of a lot of what we did. But the point is, if john McDonnell wants to spend this General Election fighting the fights of the past and that's all they've got, then go for it.

"Because what we're doing is we've got a prospectus for how we're going to build a better future in this country, which includes universal free childcare, which we announced today, we're also talking about the climate crisis, we're also talking about an economy that is greenified.

"We're talking about mental health services, we're looking to the future with a leader that I think absolutely embodies that in Jo Swinson.

"So what I would say also to Labour voters is many of them voted for Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 assuming that he was a Remain leader. The emperor has no clothes, he absolutely is not.

And we're seeing just as many labour voters who are Remainers come over to the Liberal Democrats as much as we are Conservatives."