Lib Dem Sanders turns on leadership
Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders has hit out at his party’s leadership, claiming a huge gulf exists between Nick Clegg’s team and grassroots activists.
The Torbay MP, who was first elected to parliament in 1997, used a festive blog post to deliver his unseasonally grumpy message.
“Unlike the bulk of the Liberal Democrat membership, the current leadership and their advisors are dominated by people who give the impression they didn’t, among other things, enter politics to deny the Conservatives political power,” he wrote.
“That is the fundamental difference between them and those who have spent a lifetime campaigning against the enemy, and who view the Tories as the opposition to just about everything we stand for.”
Mr Sanders rejected the leadership’s idea that the Liberal Democrats’ main problem has been a lack of credibility in terms of being in government, referring to the party’s huge experience at the local authority level.
Instead he expressed concern that they had not attempted reconciliation with the parliamentary party in the wake of the traumatic tuition fees vote.
“The leadership appears not to understand, or worse care, why it so difficult for some Liberal Democrats to accept policies they have spent much of their lives opposing, let alone the sacrifices many of them have made to get elected and thus allow others to ‘enjoy’ being in government,” he added.
