Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Kingston and Surbiton Ed Davey believes Brexit will shape his campaign for the general election in the seat he held until 2015.
Mr Davey attacked Labour for its stance on leaving the EU and joined the other party members to urge voters to look to them to oppose the government’s plans.
He argued that only the Lib Dems could effectively oppose a hard Brexit and would resist the cuts to the health service, schools and policing in the area.
Mr Davey said: “There’s no chance of Labour getting anywhere near government, they’re going to lose a lot of seats in other parts.
“I think we could be the surprise of the election, winning back seats we lost but also winning some other seats as well, including winning seats off Labour.
“Last time the Labour vote went up and we lost the seat, so if you don’t want to see a right-wing Tory, a Brexiteer, then please vote Liberal Democrat.”
He will be attempting to reclaim the seat he lost to Conservative James Berry in the 2015 general election, which saw the number of Lib Dems lose all but one of their six seats in London.
Kingston and Surbiton had a 9% swing to the Conservatives but Mr Davey hopes that the high remain vote (61.61%) in the area could change this.
“We know that London’s a heavily remain city and almost all the constituencies in south west London voted to remain, certainly here in Kingston and Surbiton.
“We think those constituencies could turn orange this time.”
Addressing the issue of tuition fees in a constituency which includes Kingston University, Mr Davey said: “Many students realise we defended their case against the Tories.
“Moreover, I think the biggest issue for students is actually Brexit.
“Only the Liberal Democrats are united and clear that we want to protect or get back those freedoms which in many ways we take for granted, but which are so essential to the futures of the people studying at Kingston University.”
However Vince Cable was unrepentant about the party’s involvement in raising the fees when in government.
He said: “It’s impossible to pretend to students that [getting rid of tuition fees] is possible in this day and age.
“The Labour Party are not serious and have never explained how they would pay for it.”
Mr Davey joined Tim Farron and Vince Cable at the launch of the Lib Dem election campaign in Surbiton last week.
