The Liberal Democrats: Green Shoots of Recovery or Still on Life Support?

Abstract

Responding to Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was in upbeat mood, proclaiming it ‘your chance to change the direction of your country … if you want to avoid a disastrous Hard Brexit … if you want to keep Britain in the Single Market … if you want a Britain that is open, tolerant and united, this is your chance’ (quoted in Osborne, 2017). The Liberal Democrats had some good reasons to feel positive. Two years previously the party had been utterly humiliated at the ballot box following five years in coalition government with the Conservatives. Driven out of natural heartlands and only 25,000 votes from total wipe out, the party was left with a rump of eight MPs, most with precarious majorities (Cutts and Russell, 2015). However, the referendum decision to leave the European Union provided the Liberal Democrats with a potential political lifeline. With Labour in apparent disarray, the Liberal Democrats had an opportunity to be the voice of those who wanted to remain in the European Union. An unequivocal ‘Pro-European’ message and support for a second EU referendum on the terms of ‘Brexit’ gave the party political space and a potentially distinctive identity. A return to the 1992 level of parliamentary representation of 20 seats at least seemed a realistic goal. After all, if the Liberal Democrats could not win a healthy number of seats in 2017 and re-impose the party as a third force in British politics when could they? Yet, despite the salience of ‘Brexit’, the Liberal Democrats failed to gain any electoral traction. Was the party strategy wrong or were other factors to blame for lack of Liberal Democrat progress? We examine what happened and why, and evaluate whether the party has a political future in British politics or remains on life support.