Vince Cable: Richmond victory marks start of Lib Dem fightback
2 min read
The Lib Dems have burst back on to the political stage as a “major national force” after seizing three councils from the Conservatives, Vince Cable said today.
The party leader hailed the local election results across England which saw the Lib Dems gain more than 60 seats.
In their biggest coup of the night they won some 24 seats in Richmond-on-Thames – grabbing control from the Tories in the passionately anti-Brexit stronghold.
They also won South Cambridgeshire and Kingston councils from the Tories, and took control of Three Rivers. Appearing at a Richmond rally this morning, Mr Cable said the party was at the “beginning of the fightback, whether it’s against Labour or Conservatives”.
“We are on course for what could be our best set of local election results in a decade and that is thanks to the outstanding efforts of our members,” he declared.
"We are doing extremely well not just here but in northern cities like Hull, Sunderland and Liverpool.
"We are reasserting ourselves as a major national force."
Mr Cable said the party had shown it could “win anywhere” – after it also seized seats in West Oxfordshire, Gosport and Sunderland.
Tory former council leader of Richmond Paul Hodgins said it had been “a tough night” but “that’s the way politics is”.
He added: “We tried to keep our campaign very local, but certainly national issues seemed to loom very large in this. “People are very disappointed but I’m proud of what we did, and residents made their decision – we’ll be back.”
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