UK Edition
Revealed: The 'hit list' of Pro-EU Tory MPs the Lib Dems are targeting in Brexit election purge
The Liberal Democrats have drawn up a hit-list of pro-EU Tory MPs who they want to unseat as they plot a Brexit purge for the election campaign.
The Telegraph can reveal that four Conservatives in parts of the country which most voted to stay in the European Union have been singled out.
Among those targeted will be Tania Mathias MP, whose Twickenham constituency overwhelmingly backed staying in the EU at last year's referendum.
According to Lib Dem party analysis just one in three voters in Twickenham wanted Brexit - something the Tories are now promising to deliver at this election.
Vince Cable, the former business secretary, will seek to reclaim the Twickenham seat from the Conservatives, which he lost in the last election.
The Lib Dems will also seek to challenge Nicola Blackwood, the Conservative MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, along with Anne Main, the MP for St Albans and Ben Howlett, MP for Bath. All three are going into the election supporting Brexit despite a minority of their constituents voting for Brexit at the EU referendum.
A source familiar with the Liberal Democrats’ election plan told The Telegraph: "We have massive momentum and we are gunning for Tory MPs who have sign up and voted for Theresa May's hard Brexit. Only the Liberal Democrats are standing for a country that is open, tolerant and united."
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, believes remain voters who voted Tory two years ago thinking David Cameron would manage to keep Britain in the EU will now return to his party.
The Liberal Democrats lost 49 seats in 2015 but the party has seen its membership surge since the EU referendum. The party claims to have doubled in size since May 2015 from 45,500 to 92,000. The party said it welcomed an additional 2,500 new members in the immediate aftermath of Mrs May’s statement in Downing Street.