Lib Dem leader and predecessor miss knife-edge Brexit votes
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has apologised after missing two knife-edge Brexit votes.
The party faced an angry backlash when Mr Farron and his successor, Sir Vince Cable, were absent when the Government scraped through by just three votes on key customs proposals.
Mr Farron insisted he took "full responsibility" for his failure to turn up but said the results had not been expected to have been as close as they were.
I was authorised to be absent from the vote last night for a pre-arranged engagement. Nobody expected the vote to be as close as it was. We clearly called it wrong, as did Labour, and I take full responsibility for my part - the Tories don't deserve any luck. pic.twitter.com/XoLVPawtmo
-- Tim Farron (@timfarron) July 17, 2018
The late night votes came after a highly-charged day of Tory in-fighting that saw Brexiteers step back from the brink of rebelling, only for then infuriated Remainers in the party to oppose the Government.
Only support from three of Jeremy Corbyn's MPs and an independent, who previously had the Labour whip withdrawn, allowed two changes to the customs legislation to go through.
Last night two Brextremist-driven amendments were carried by a whisker - 3 and 4 votes, respectively. 14 Tories rebelled. Tim Farron and Vince Cable (those doughty, fearless crusaders against a hard Brexit) didn't vote. This was how Tim spent his evening: https://t.co/Iz5dHz9RHL
-- Stephen Kinnock (@SKinnock) July 17, 2018
Mr Farron was booked to give a talk, Illiberal Truths, about the furore over whether he believed gay sex was a sin during the last general election.
He said: "I was authorised to be absent from the vote last night for a pre-arranged engagement.
"Nobody expected the vote to be as close as it was. We clearly called it wrong, as did Labour, and I take full responsibility for my part - the Tories don't deserve any luck."
