Rather than split the anti-Brexit vote, Jo Swinson must campaign for a Final Say poll

Editorial: The question is how to resolve the Brexit deadlock, and The Independent believes that a new referendum is the only way

The big decision, as the Liberal Democrat conference gets under way in Bournemouth, is whether the party will vote for a policy of cancelling Brexit without a further referendum. If so – and delegates are expected to follow Jo Swinson, their leader, in supporting the policy – it will be largely symbolic.

The question is what to put in the party’s manifesto if there is a general election while Britain is still in the European Union. Ms Swinson wants to commit a Lib Dem government to revoking Article 50. But she and her party activists know that a majority Lib Dem government is unlikely, and that the policy is therefore more of a statement of intent – an opening bid in interparty negotiations in a hung parliament, perhaps.

As The Independent argued this week, the policy is unsatisfactory and needlessly polarising. We have long held that the only way to reverse the 2016 vote is through another, Final Say, referendum. However, we can understand the party political reasons for wanting to adopt the most sharply defined anti-Brexit position possible.

Ms Swinson can see what is happening in the Labour Party. She will have noticed the speech on Wednesday given by Tom Watson, the deputy leader, in which he urged his party not just to back a referendum, but to advocate Remain unequivocally in that referendum.

Jeremy Corbyn will come under pressure at his conference next week to move further in that direction; Ms Swinson is trying to keep one step ahead, maintaining the distinctive Lib Dem Remainer brand.

The danger in this, of course, is that such positioning risks splitting the anti-Brexit vote. Already, Sir Vince Cable’s success and Mr Corbyn’s attempt to straddle the Brexit divide in the Labour Party have given Boris Johnson the kind of divided opposition he needs as he tries to squeeze the Brexit Party.

This is, frankly, a more important question than the details of Lib Dem Brexit policy, or of Ms Swinson’s refusal to countenance a coalition government with Labour. The question is how to resolve the Brexit deadlock, and The Independent believes that a new referendum is the only way.

That referendum could take place before a general election, as Tony Blair, Mr Watson and others have argued. It may be that Mr Johnson, if he fails to take Britain out of the EU at the end of next month, would rather have a referendum than fight an election with Nigel Farage on his back.

But if there is an election, all Remainers in all parties should be as united as possible in using that election to obtain a Final Say referendum. That will mean parties working together in unprecedented ways to elect the largest possible number of MPs committed to such an outcome.

Regardless of what the Lib Dems decide in Bournemouth this week, their MPs will be part of that Remain alliance. Let us hear how it can be strengthened rather than weakened.