Vince Cable By Chris McAndrew (CC-BY-3.0)
The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, climbed out of his Remain bunker and beamed at the world saying he had the support of eight European Union leaders including those from the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and the Czech Republic, all calling for the people of the UK to be given the final say on the EU/UK Brexit deal.
The problem though, is that those eight leaders seem to have a different recollection of the meeting where Vince Cable said this had been agreed.
The Lib Dem leader had held talks with a group of EU liberal prime ministers, says the Independent Where Mr Cable claims they verbally agreed to back calls for the UK to have a referendum on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the EU.
On the Liberal democrat website the party declares that:
"Liberal prime ministers from eight EU countries have publicly backed the Liberal Democrats call for the British public to have a vote on the final Brexit deal."
They also claim that a joint statement was agreed between them as follows:
“We regret Brexit, but acknowledge the choice made by British voters for the UK Government to negotiate withdrawal.
"We further acknowledge and support the Liberal Democrats’ call for the British people to have the final say on the Brexit deal.
"All parties need to seek a broad deal accommodating both the position of the UK government and the principles on which the European Union is built.”
And the Lib dems then go on to say that:
"This statement is a clear signal from our European friends that they want us to remain in the European Union and would welcome an exit from Brexit with open arms."
However, the group of prime ministers involved from the EU ALDE party (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) beg to differ. They put out a tweet saying:
Pertaining to the LibDem press release issued today on Brexit: at the ALDE leaders meeting of 22 March no statement has been agreed upon or released.
— ALDE Party (@ALDEParty) March 22, 2018
An ALDE spokesperson said:
“ALDE leaders did meet on 22 March in Brussels and did support Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats.
“However, no statement was agreed upon or issued.
“If there would have been such a statement issued by the ALDE Party, it would have been done in their capacity as party leaders, not as prime ministers.”
Now, how much is a verbal agreement worth in politician speak?
