(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Calling himself a 'proud saboteur of the Brexit process, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable yesterday appealed to opponents in all parties to put aside differences and fight a divorce from the European Union.
The fourth-largest party with 12 representatives in the 650-seat parliament, the Liberal Democrats are hoping to become the lightning rod for any rise in anti-Brexit sentiment as Prime Minister Theresa May's government edges closer to leaving the EU in March 2019.
Cable, an economist who was business minister in the 2010 to 2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, has redoubled his party's criticism of the decision to leave the EU since becoming party leader in July.
'I want our party to lead the fight against Brexit, Cable said in his address to the party's autumn conference. He called for a new referendum, describing Brexit as a looming disaster.
'In the real world, we have yet to experience the full impact of leaving Europe. But we've had a taste of what is to come in the fall of the value of the pound, Cable said.
Sterling fell by as much as 20% against the dollar in the months after the June 2016 EU referendum. It has recovered around half those losses, in part thanks to increasing expectations of an interest rate hike to ease inflation, but the pound is still 9% down on pre-Brexit levels.
'Foreign exchange dealers are not point-scoring politicians, they make cool, hard, unsentimental judgements. Quite simply, that Brexit Britain will be poorer and weaker than if we had decided to stay in Europe, Cable said.
He also said the government was relying too heavily on its relationship with the US to help it adjust to life after Brexit, criticising US President Donald Trump as 'volatile, and dangerous and an apologist for religious and racial hatred.
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