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As the Liberal Democrats prepare to fight the Lewisham East byelection on Thursday on a platform of guaranteeing a referendum on any eventual deal, the party leader said the longer the government appeared deadlocked over Brexit, the greater the risk the UK would leave the EU without a deal.
“I’d always assumed that the government would more or less get something, a divorce settlement plus a vague commitment to sort things out – Brexit in name but probably not in fact,” Cable told the Guardian during a visit to the constituency.
“But as time passes and they can’t reconcile their internal differences, you begin to think that not getting any kind of deal at all is back on the agenda. We’d rather discounted it, but it’s a real possibility again.”
Cable, who was among those who sent out warnings before the 2008 financial crash, said leaving the EU without a deal would be “potentially catastrophic”. Asked if he could think of a policy disaster of similar magnitude he said: “Not really. There have been disastrous errors on policy – Iraq, Suez – but nothing like this.”
He urged Theresa May to stand up to hardline Brexiters, such as the European Research Group of Tory MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg.
“I can’t understand why she won’t take on the hard right of the party. The chances of them actually dislodging her are not high,” he said.
“You’d have thought she’d say, we’ve reached the limit of what we can do, and I’m going to go ahead in the customs union/single market framework, and you guys will have to put up with it. And she would have the support of the rest of parliament and would carry the country.” [...]