SENIOR Liberal Democrats last night predicted a bleak future for the UK if it leaves the European Union as they rallied supporters at the party's York conference.

The Lib Dems have dubbed themselves the party of “in” over Europe and positioned themselves in direct conflict with UKIP as May’s European elections loom.

The party has warned leaving the single market would wreck the British economy and leave millions of jobs at risk as firms looked to trade and invest elsewhere.

The Barbican rally saw Lib Dem president Tim Farron, who is in charge of the party’s Euro election campaign, say: “Tough economic times can breed extremism, as people look for easy solutions and extremists look to exploit the circumstances and deceive voters.

“At stake are three million British jobs, including thousands in York, and our ability to fight crime, tackle climate change and maintain peace and security. That is worth fighting for.”

Yorkshire MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, a former Conservative who joined the Lib Dems in 2010, said he was now in a party which was “internationalist, not nationalist”.

He said the European Parliament was in need of reform, having been a talking shop when it started, but the Lib Dems were not just the party of ‘in’, but a party of reformers.

Business Secretary Vince Cable opened the speeches at the rally in his home city, and spoke of how his desire to resist Treasury pressure to cut funding for adult education stemmed from the lease of life it gave his mother after she suffered a nervous breakdown, earning him a standing ovation.

He defended the Lib Dems’ record in Government. He said: “The economy is turning round, we have helped make that happen, and we have made absolutely sure there will be no return to the boom-or-bust cycle of banking-led irresponsibility we have had in the past.

“I think if Joseph Rowntree, the great Liberal reformer produced by this city, was looking down, he would be cheering us on for what we are doing.”

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