The Liberal Democrats have scrapped their pledge to revoke Article 50, a leading candidate has confirmed, as she admitted defeat on behalf of her party in next month’s general election.
Layla Moran told BBC Breakfast the party had gone “back to plan A” and would no longer push to cancel Brexit outright.
Speaking to host Naga Munchetty, the Oxford West and Abingdon candidate said the party would instead campaign for a second referendum.
Clarifying, Ms Munchetty said: “I was under the impression the Liberal Democrat message was you’re scrapping Brexit - now you’re promising another referendum, a people’s vote?
“That is a change in tactic, we’re two weeks away from the general election, from the vote.”
Ms Moran replied: “What we’d always said was that we would only be able to do that if we had a majority Liberal Democrat government."
“Which is not going to happen, is it?” Ms Munchetty asked the Lib Dem candidate in response.
“Exactly, exactly,” Ms Moran responded, adding: “So that’s where we are now - we’ve gone back to plan A.”
The policy to cancel Brexit without another vote has not been going down well, according to campaigners.
One candidate told The Times: “It hasn’t been a popular policy. People are only hearing the revoke message and say we have abandoned the People’s Vote. That’s quite a common thing. People don’t think it’s realistic.
"There is a difference between people being theoretically keen on revoke and the reality."
The pledge was intended to offer a clear Remain counterpoint to Boris Johnson’s “get Brexit done” slogan but it has proved unpopular on the doorstep, as the party’s poll ratings droop.
Leader Jo Swinson has suffered a series of setbacks, with a poll last week finding that half of voters have an unfavourable view of her, up from under a third in June.
Ms Swinson began her campaign saying she would fight to become the next prime minister - an ambition dismissed as “fantasy politics” during an unforgiving interview with Andrew Neil last month.
But by November 24 she said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that the most likely outcome was that Mr Johnson would remain in No10 and her aim was to prevent him winning a majority.
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It comes after the latest YouGov MPR poll put the party on 13 per cent, down three points in a week and well short of its of 23 per cent peak at the start of last month.
