Eurosceptic Conservatives and the UK Independence Party's opposition to European Union membership threatens to inflict "serious damage" on the United Kingdom, British business secretary Vince Cable has said.
Calling the Liberal Democrats the UK's pro-EU party, Mr Cable said uncertainty about an EU in-out referendum "is creating a blight" over business investment, "which we desperately need".
The Lib Dems face a significant battle in the May European Parliament elections to hold on to any of the 11 seats the party won in 2009. However, the junior coalition partner has decided to portray itself without qualification as the most pro-EU party in British politics.
The electoral strategy is to focus relentlessly on Ukip, with Catherine Bearder MEP describing Ukip as “the most xenophobic, nationalistic party seen in Britain for nearly a century”.
The focus on Farage and Ukip is deliberate, since a head- to-head battle offers the Liberal Democrats the chance to win profile with voters in an election that has rarely enthused voters.
'The party of In'
Describing the Lib Dems as "the party of In", leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said Ukip wanted the UK to leave the EU, while the Conservatives were "openly flirting with exit". Labour would not "lift a finger" to prevent the UK's departure from the EU, he said.
“Are you in, or out: that is the real question in the European Parliament elections,” he said.
Mr Clegg caused surprise in some quarters last week by challenging Ukip leader Nigel Farage to a public debate before the election. Following talks, the two will debate twice: once on the London-based LBC Radio and then a week later on BBC2 television.
Mocking Mr Farage, Mr Cable said the ancient Britons who once ruled York "didn't like immigration very much under the first treaty of Rome".
Mr Farage’s equivalent in Roman times would, he said to delegates’ cheers, have sat “dressed only in purple woad, with a pint of British mead”. There, he would have complained about Roman red tape “that roads should be straight and coins should be round” and about “plumbers from the eastern fringes who came to fix the Roman baths”.
In his speech, Mr Cable said: “I meet businesses on a daily basis – from car makers to banks; big and small: British, Japanese, American, Indian, German. They tell me that they invest, or will invest, in Britain because they have guaranteed access to the EU single market. But they have other options: if that access is put at risk, they will look elsewhere.”
The Lib Dems “can be comfortable in our own political skins: fighting, not keeping our heads well below the parapet as Labour are doing.
“Distinctive and correct. Aligned with both responsible business and the progressive left and the millions of others who want us to stay in,” he said.
Last night, the party’s chairman, Tim Farron MP, told delegates a vote for the Conservatives or Labour in the May elections will “be a wasted vote” to defy opinion polls.
