Politics: Pro-Remain Farron Fails then Falls

Tim Farron’s two years leading the Liberal Democrats were summed up by the manner, or rather the timing, of his departure.

His resignation was badly judged, widely ignored and smelled a bit fishy.

The man who had carried, and squandered, the hopes of many EU Remainers in the general election took the bizarre decision yesterday to call a press conference to announce his resignation at the precise time that the nation was concentrating on the terrible tower fire and multiple fatalities in London.

If there was any hope of using the occasion to arouse public interest in the party’s future and a leadership contest between figures such as the popular old warhorse Vince Cable and potentially the party’s first female leader Jo Swinson, then that hope was killed off by Farron’s awkward bit of timing.

And Farron explained his resignation by casting himself as a victim of a relentless media focus on his Christianity, instead of admitting that he had flopped in the general election campaign and had compounded the party’s problems by refusing to give straight and prompt answers about how his faith affected his views on issues such as homosexuality.

Having fought right up until Wednesday afternoon to retain the job in face of growing internal dissent, Farron realised he had to go and then presented himself as a martyr to his faith. His handling of his exit showed the poor political instincts of a man who failed to cut through in the election despite leading the only major national party that proudly championed the Remain cause that had won 48% of the national vote in last year’s Brexit referendum.

Facing a promising opportunity to rebound from the electoral kicking the party received in 2015 over its five years in coalition with the Tories, Farron instead saw the Lib Dem share of the national vote go backwards from a dismal 7.9% in 2015 to just 7.4%.

In 2010 the Lib Dems received 23.5% of the vote, winning 57 seats and coming second in another 242. On June 8 the party won just 12 seats, finishing second in only 38 others and losing its £500 electoral deposit in most seats (375) by failing to reach the threshold of 5% of the vote. The party lost five of the nine seats it held before the election, including that of former leader Nick Clegg.

Much of the problem was Farron’s failure to be taken seriously or to make any impact at all. Three weeks out from the election, after 22 months as party leader, Farron had an approval rating of 19% and a disapproval rating of 30%. The most damning survey result was that a full 51% of respondents said they did not know Farron or had no opinion of him.

That put him on a par with even Paul Nuttall, the relatively new leader of UKIP, who had a “no opinion” rating of 50%.

Farron’s hand was forced by party heavyweights including the party’s most senior gay politician Brian Paddick, a former Scotland Yard police officer.

Paddick announced on Wednesday that he had quit as the party’s home affairs spokesman, tweeting that it was “over concerns about the leader’s views on various issues that were highlighted during GE17.”

There was no mystery about what issues Paddick meant.

Farron refused early in the election campaign to say whether he believed gay sex was a sin,  initially evading the question and eventually saying that he did not see it as a sin.

Farron denied repeatedly that his conversion as a young adult to evangelical Christianity conflicted with his party’s liberal social views but his record of abstaining on some crucial votes on gay rights and his slippery answers on the issue left doubts in the minds of many voters.

Just over two hours after Paddick’s resignation Farron said he was stepping down because of the focus on his religion, suggesting that he was choosing to put his faith over his political career.

“The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader. A better, wiser person than me may have been able to deal with this more successfully, to have remained faithful to Christ while leading a political party in the current environment…

“I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in. In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society.”

Farron quoted from a hymn by the theologian Isaac Watts to say that he was choosing his faith in Christ over the honour of leading his party.

“Imagine what would lead me to voluntarily relinquish that honour. In the words of Isaac Watts it would have to be something ‘so amazing, so divine, (it) demands my heart, my life, my all’.”

While many Lib Dems felt that Farron’s explanation avoided the real reasons for his resignation the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby accepted Farron’s version, tweeting that if an “honourable and decent” man like him “can’t be in politics media & politicians have questions.”

Another Anglican bishop, Peter Broadbent, tweeted that Farron’s resignation was “deeply regrettable… Nobody should be forced to choose between their faith & their politics.”

If Swinson does win the leadership it will mark the first time that most parties at Westminster will have female leaders. The Conservatives and Greens already had women at the helm and the Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru elected Liz Saville Roberts as their new leader. Labour, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Scottish National Party have male leaders in the House of Commons.

 

by Peter Wilson

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