Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable accused the British government of “entrusting the future” of the U.K. to Donald Trump — “a president who is volatile, dangerous and an apologist for religious and racial hatred.”
Speaking at his party’s conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday, Cable called Trump the “giant tweeter who lives in a white house far away and who flies across the ocean to rescue us from the wicked gnomes of Europe,” before reiterating the Lib Dems’ call to cancel Trump’s state visit to the U.K.
Cable also blamed Labour and the Conservatives for leaving the U.K. weaker after they had been in power and said he rued the Lib Dems’ disastrous stint in government as part of a coalition with the Tories from 2010-2015. “For many voters, we still have to scrub ourselves hard to get rid of the smell of clearing up other people’s mess,” Cable said.
He called Brexit a “product of a fraudulent and frivolous campaign led by two groups of silly public school boys reliving their dormitory fights” and referred to Prime Minister Theresa May as a “headteacher barricaded in her office” while a riot goes on in the school.
Cable said the government was incapable of managing the Brexit negotiations, saying the divorce is “being managed by people who would struggle to get their heads around a toddler’s lego set.”
The veteran politician, who took over the party leadership after the June election when he won back his seat in parliament, reiterated the Lib Dems’ position as “the party of Remain,” calling on Theresa May to declare a “right to stay” for the 3 million EU citizens currently residing in the U.K. He also repeated the Lib Dems’ call for a referendum on a final Brexit deal.
“We will be denounced as traitors and saboteurs,” Cable said, “but if the definition of sabotage is fighting to protect British jobs, public services, the environment and civil liberties, then I am a proud saboteur.”