Where's Farron and Cable? Top Lib Dems spark fury and ridicule for missing crucial Brexit votes
The leader of the ardently pro-Remain Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, and the party's former leader, Tim Farron, have sparked anger amongst anti-Brexit campaigners on social media after the pair failed to turn up to vote against the Conservative government's hard Brexit legislation in last night's crunch round of votes on leaving the European Union.
Owing in part to the absence of the two top Lib Dems, the Tories were able to narrowly avoid defeat on amendments to their highly controversial Customs Bill.
The legislation which scraped through Parliament last night effectively ensures the UK will now exit the EU on either hard Brexit terms or without a deal.
During the morning the government surprisingly accepted several amendments devised by the hard-right Tory Brexiteer faction, the European Research Group (ERG) led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, that many argued completely undermined Theresa May's Chequer's agreement and the subsequent red lines set out in the Tories' Brexit White Paper.
The government's acceptance of the amendments sparked fierce confrontations in the subsequent debate between Tory Brexiteers and assorted pro-EU MPs.
And then, following lively debate, the Tories were only just able to scrape all of the legislation through, narrowly avoiding defeat - and potential calamity for Theresa May's ever-waning authority - on two of the amendments by just three votes.
However, following the wafer-thin margin of victory for the Tories, news then broke that prominent anti-Brexit campaigner, and the former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron - as well as the current Lib Dem leader Vince Cable - had failed to bother showing up to the votes altogether.
https://twitter.com/PolhomeEditor/status/1018976227351199757
Subsequently, Farron was unsurprisingly subjected to a barrage of questions on Twitter asking him where he was and what he was playing at - queries which he has so far refused to respond to:
https://twitter.com/Angry_Voice/status/1019016867401404416
https://twitter.com/SDoughtyMP/status/1019011417473724417
https://twitter.com/flied_up/status/1018983607648518144
But now, in a move which has been described as 'Peak Lib Dem', Farron is reported to have missed last night's vote as he was busy giving a talk about the demise of liberalism:
https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1018996704832573441
Despite tweeting in opposition to the Tories' amendments yesterday afternoon, nobody has yet been able to explain why Vince Cable refused to vote against the government's hard Brexit legislation.
https://twitter.com/vincecable/status/1018868918180605952
Both Farron and Cable were unsurprisingly accused of rank hypocrisy for missing last night's crucial votes, not least because it has only been a matter of weeks since Cable spoke at a pro-Remain rally in London where he lambasted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for supposedly failing to oppose the government's stance on Brexit.
During last month's anti-Brexit march, thousands of campaigners were heard chanting "Where's Jeremy Corbyn" - a song mocking the Labour leader for supposedly enabling Brexit and refusing to oppose the government.
However, despite Labour's record of voting against a massive 72 of the government's 83 Brexit bills, a large section of anti-Brexit campaigners have, for whatever reason, decided to focus their ire on the Labour leader, whilst simultaneously praising the so-called Tory rebels who, despite their moniker, have actually consistently voted with their party in enabling a hard Brexit:
https://twitter.com/EL4JC/status/1014175560501776384
It remains to be seen how exactly arch-Remainers will attempt to blame Jeremy Corbyn for Farron and Cable's inexplicable no-show last night.