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Liberal Democrat leadership hopeful Sir Ed Davey has today called for a Government of national unity to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
The former Energy Secretary believes Labour’s Yvette Cooper or Hilary Benn should sit as Prime Minister and they would have the support of the majority of MPs in the Commons – including up to 25 Tories.
His proposal for a cross-party national government – usually reserved for periods of war – would exist for a few weeks if there was a vote of no confidence in the Government, he suggested.
During that time MPs would pass legislation to call a second referendum.
Sir Ed said: “I’ve named Yvette Cooper for obvious reasons, she’s been very high-profile in cross-party work, and I’ve also mentioned Hilary Benn as chair of the Brexit Select Committee.”
Coalition ministries were set up during the first and second world wars. Winston Churchill also created the brief “caretaker government” of 1946.
The senior Lib Dem believes his suggestion is a practical remedy to the current Brexit impasse.
He told the Standard that he would never go into coalition with Mr Corbyn, saying the Lib Dems could be “extraordinarily powerful” in their own right by seizing the balance of power should there be a hung parliament at a future General Election.
He said: “What this parliament has shown, is that a small number of votes can be really powerful. Let’s say if we have 50 votes, then we hold the balance of power. We would be extraordinarily powerful but you don’t have to go into Government to exercise that power.”
As speculation of a snap General Election continues to grow, both he and leadership rival Jo Swinson are grappling with the idea the Lib Dems could be ‘kingmakers’ once again in propping up a minority government.
He also ruled out working with Conservatives intent on Brexit. He said: “When both parties are facilitating Brexit and are in my view going to the extremes of British politics, it’s very difficult for us to see how we would work with that. I mean it’s not like it’s Tony Blair or David Cameron. Both of those were centrist politicians, pro-European politicians.
“I’m not in politics to sure-up anti-European parties with bonkers extreme economic politics that are either very right wing or very left wing.”
On Brexit and climate change, he said he failed to “see eye to eye with” Mr Corbyn.
He fears that the left-winger’s plan to nationalise energy networks would take so long to implement, they could ultimately delay the response to the country’s climate emergency.
“On climate change, through his own very left-wing ideology, he wants to spend a lot of money nationalising our energy sector. That is a real threat to climate change. We don’t have time to waste on his left-wing ideologies,” he said.
Sir Ed was one of the most senior Lib just Dem figures in the Coalition Government under Cameron, holding the energy brief between 2012 and 2015.
“We should decarbonise capitalism – pension funds, stock exchanges, debt markets – make sure that their balance sheets for the next 20 to 30 years must be compliant with net zero [emissions],” he said.
He was elected to Kingston & Surbiton in 1997 but lost his seat after 18 years in 2015 – gaining it back from the Tories at the 2017 snap election.
The new leader will take over from Sir Vince Cable later this summer after a vote by the membership, which is understood to be at record high levels of 107,000.
The party currently has 12 MPs – after ex-Labour Chuka Umunna joined their ranks – however Sir Ed believes they are on such an upward trajectory that they could even be the largest party at a future election.
“It’s not too far-fetched,” he said. “And I wouldn’t have said that three months ago.”
On exactly how many MPs he would need to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, he said it would be “idiotic” to start putting numbers around because polls are so volatile.
* The 53-year-old was forced to apologise on Tuesday after he was criticised for calling for Boris Johnson to be “decapitated” through an electoral pact of pro-Remain parties in his Uxbridge & South Ruislip constituency – which he holds with a majority of 5000.
Ms Swinson said he should not have resorted to violent imagery.
