Tim Farron interview: The Lib Dem leader on fighting back after his party's worst ever year

Tim Farron is trying to rally the spirits of a small band of bedraggled Lib Dem activists taking shelter from the rain outside Wood Green Underground Station.

It is a miserable, grey and wet afternoon but Farron is doing his best to gee up the faithful who are about to head off for an afternoon’s canvassing. He’s quoting Napoleon and generally sounding chipper.

But if any scene captures the reality of the new Lib Dem leader’s life it is this. There is no Government car, no civil service aides and, frankly, no real interest from members of the public who irritably push past the small group on their way to warmth of the Tube.

This part of London used to be solid Lib Dem territory, but not any more. The party lost Hornsey and Wood Green in May on a 15 per cent swing to Labour and now they (and their leader) are left fighting council ward by-elections.

The scale of the challenge nationally will be underlined this weekend when, what’s left of the party, will gather in Bournemouth for their first conference since the disastrous election result.

There, it will be Farron’s job to put the party on a wider stage and try to give it a new sense of direction and relevance.

Two months ago, when he was elected, Farron’s strategy appeared to be to move to the left and distance himself from Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems’ record in Government.

“Being competent in Government does not make the hairs on the back of anybody’s neck stand on end,” he said pointedly at the time.

“We need to find issues that fire us and make us all passionate and inspired and using them to go out there and rebuild a movement – something which we haven’t been doing over the last few years.”

But the election of Jeremy Corbyn has changed that calculation. Now Farron is attempting to capitalise on Labour’s shift to the left – by emphasising the very things he previously eschewed.

“We are not going to be a party of protest,” he says now.

“It is all the more important given the current circumstances that we demonstrate that we are absolutely serious about being serious players in the British system.

“I am proud of what we did (in Government) and I’m clear what we’re for. We’re a progressive, moderate and responsible Liberal Party and there is a vast amount of space for us – and we are determined to fill it.”

He will also not rule out doing another deal with the Conservatives should the 2020 election result in another hung Parliament.

“We certainly want to return to Government,” he says. “What 2010 proves is that coalitions are nothing to do with preference and everything to do with arithmetic – and we’ll wait and see what the arithmetic says.”

As part of this new “sensible” approach Farron is making a pitch to disaffected Labour voters – and possibly the odd MP and councillor – alarmed by Corbyn’s victory and the rise of the old left. He is happy for the Lib Dems to be seen as business-friendly and he is not about to jump on the anti-austerity bandwagon.

“The current Labour leadership pretend that if you whack up taxes on businesses and don’t balance the books everything is fine,” he says.

“But there are plenty of examples around the world that show that it won’t be.

“Any normal human being who runs a household or a business knows it’s rot. You can’t just go printing money without ending up with massive inflation which always hurts the poorest the most.

“I would argue that if you want loads more austerity Corbyn is your man.”

Farron also attacks both the big parties for indulging in what he describes as the politics of blame – where problems are laid at the door of ‘other people’.

“Politics now is so much about the problems that we face being ‘all their fault’.

“If it wasn’t for the Scots; if it wasn’t for the English; if it wasn’t for Brussels; if it wasn’t for the refugees; it if wasn’t for the idle poor; if it wasn’t for the idle rich; if it wasn’t for the trade unions or it wasn’t for big business.

“I want Britain to be governed from a progressive and responsible place.

“The only way to do that is from a position of cohesion and trying to unite people and not try to demonise one group or another.”

He makes it clear that the Lib Dems will fight as hard as they can for a vote to stay in the EU in the upcoming referendum and will also champion the plight of refugees seeking sanctuary in Europe.

But huge challenges remain. Two days after the wet weather canvassing in Wood Green the council by-election took place and the Lib Dem candidates were roundly beaten by Labour.

The fightback may have begun but there is a long, long way to go.