NOW that Conservatives have been transformed into a combination of UKIP and the Brexit Party, it is hardly surprising that previous Tory voters and MPs are deserting to join the Liberal Democrats.

The Lib Dems now command the middle ground, once the territory of one-nation Tories and New Labour.

The party’s manifesto pledge to cancel Brexit will appeal to millions of young people who do not see themselves as Little Englanders as well as Remainers and those Leavers who have come to realise they were deceived into believing that the EU was responsible for years of Tory mis-rule.

Instead of dithering, the Labour Party should also now denounce the 2016 referendum as the billionaire tax-avoidance con-trick that it was. Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson, and Iain Duncan-Smith, who inflicted so much misery on working class families, have, by clever marketing, convinced those same people to now support them. Democracy and general elections are all about enabling voters to change their minds as new information comes to light. Well done Jo Swinson!

Stephen Warren, Durham