Brexit: Liberal Democrats will target vulnerable Conservative leadership contenders

Remain parties outpolled the Brexit Party in the home areas of eight Tories seeking to succeed Theresa May as PM

Ed Davey was energy secretary in the coalition before losing his seat in the election (PA)

Liberal Democrats are planning to target Conservative leadership contenders who have been exposed as vulnerable to a Brexit backlash from Remain-supporting voters in their own constituencies.

The party's analysis of voting figures in this week’s European elections showed that the combined support for Remain parties made up more than half the votes cast in the council area covering the constituency of prominent hard Brexiteer Dominic Raab.

And the parties backing a second referendum – the Lib Dems, Greens and Change UK – together pulled in more votes that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in areas containing the seats of Boris Johnson, Esther McVey, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Jeremy Hunt, Matt Hancock and Rory Stewart.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey said the party was ready to target Tory leadership hopefuls who failed to reflect their constituents’ concerns about a no-deal Brexit.

“The Liberal Democrats will target your seats to save the country from your catastrophic hard Brexit,” he warned them.

He said: “More than half the vote in the seat of Dominic Raab went to Remain parties. It is a travesty of the truth to say that all Conservative voters want their party to be even more like Nigel Farage. Far from wanting to get on with Brexit, the majority of voters now just want to call the whole thing off.”

According to the Lib Dem analysis, Sir Vince Cable’s party outpolled the Tories this week in each of the areas including the seats of the eight leadership contenders.

And the combined Remain vote hit 54.5 per cent in the voting area including Mr Raab’s Esher and Walton. In Mr Gove’s Surrey Heath, the Remain parties outstripped the Brexit Party by 41.9 per cent to 38.3 per cent and enjoyed an advantage of 29.7-27 in Mr Johnson’s seat, 40-34.2 in Ms McVey’s, 39.9-36.3 in Ms Leadsom’s and 48.5-28.8 in Mr Hunt’s.

“Rather than pandering to Nigel Farage, if any of these Tory leadership contenders have the stature to become prime minister they must be honest and admit that voters are understandably terrified of the reckless hard Brexit that Conservatives have been trying to force on the country,” said Davey.

“The Liberal Democrats have shown they can win in the Tory backyard, and Conservative Brexiteers have every reason to be frightened.

“I will continue to campaign to give the people a say on any final deal."