'We ran on that': how the Lib Dems fell apart

They are the kingmakers who made no kings: the Liberal Democrats now find themselves without any coalition partners, without any friends amongst the other parties they have scorned in Parliament, and now without any leadership.

The 'Penzance Declaration', jointly issued by Kingston and Surbiton MP and Lib Dem leader amazonas122 as well as St Ives MP and Lib Dem deputy leader phonexia2, lambasted the rejection of a coalition deal which would have seen them enter government with the Labour Party, attacking their backbenchers who they claim have made their positions untenable.

Both have quit the leadership as well as the Liberal Democrats, plunging the party into a leadership crisis as well as giving Great Britain its first MPs from a Northern Irish party since Andrew Hunter quit the Conservatives and joined the DUP in 2004.

phonexia2 told the Independent that Alliance now intends to form a coalition government with Labour. Given that they now have three MPs, Inadorable would need to cobble together a coalition deal with Alliance, the Green Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, and Alba in order to reach a 19-seat majority, assuming that she will not coalition with the Conservatives or Reform UK.

The Lib Dems rejected coalition deals with both Labour and the Conservatives. Talks to include Reform UK in a Tory deal publicly collapsed yesterday.

As to the backbenchers that caused the potential Traffic Light Coalition to collapse, phonexia lambasted MPs such as t2boys, who represents Redditch and is now in a strong position to assume the party leadership, saying 'they are deficit hawking so hard they expected us to drop our own manifesto commitments to pay for an imagined "hundreds of billions" coming from policies like nationalising water companies... while opposing the carbon tax and other tax rises.'

Internal WhatsApp chats among Lib Dem party members at odds over spending commitments in coalition deals clashing with the manifesto that they ran on in the past general election.

Mr 2boys described the proposed coalition document as 'an extremely expensive document with very little mandate', and described the fiscal situation as 'being paid for through taxes that won't raise anywhere near as much'.

model-flumsy, Norwich South MP, agreed with Mr 2boys.

'The budget will inevitably be at the end of term, so we will end up voting through [their policies] only for them to either break down budget [negotiations] or eliminate some of our stuff in favour of insulation'.

In a statement to the Independent, t2boys said:

I have no regrets about voting against an unrealistic coalition agreement. My voters did not vote to raise taxes on working people and did not vote for fringe policies to be implemented that have no mandate from the British people.

We tried again and again to ask for priorities, and even during the vote we begged leadership to give us direction on what the priorities would be and how they could ensure we passed a realistic budget. We were ignored. Any questions were met with attacks.

I’m sad to see it end this way but the Liberal Democrats were elected on a clear manifesto to end fantasy economics. It’s just a shame that two people who are keeping their MP seats after defecting are now attacking their own policies and manifesto.

No easy way forward

The Liberal Democrats did not announce their vote results until just an hour before the coalition formation deadline expired, though their outgoing leadership would have known which way the results were going to go.

They now leave the country in a very precarious situation, as parties race against the clock to form a government with the two leading plans thrown completely into disarray.

As for the Lib Dems, they will need to navigate an incredibly uncertain future. While still a major force in Parliament, even when reduced to 5 MPs, they will need to work hard to rebuild relationships with other parties and decide on a cohesive policy platform, given that their outgoing leader claims some of their backbenchers have rejected the manifesto they stood on just two weeks ago.