Lib Dems tell GB News: give us 12 months to reverse Brexit damage

Speaking to Forster at the party conference, the deputy leader framed growth as the route to tackling the cost of living and paired it with a security argument that the world is insecure, so Britain has "got to deepen our defense ties with Europe."

A growth and defence partnership agreed in the next 12 months would, in her account, put money back in people's pockets and make the country safer, stronger and more prosperous.

Forster's objection was economic and positional rather than sentimental. Per a Lib Dem spokesman she cited, the EU economies are "all struggling with very low growth" — so why is rejoining a good idea?

In Forster's reading the EU will drive a really hard bargain, and the bloc is still very unhappy that Britain left in the first place.

Her target was the barriers and red tape she said is strangling small businesses right up and down the country. Tearing those down, in her pitch, means more trade, a growing economy, money back in people's pockets and a safer, more secure, more prosperous country.