In just eleven weeks, however, our country faces an immediate crisis: crashing out of the EU without any deal. The most cavalier and catastrophic of Brexits: putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs , public services including our NHS , and even our national security.

So in this moment of national emergency, I stand ready to work with anyone to stop Boris Johnson and his hard-line Brexit government.

After very careful thought, I have come to the conclusion that I can best serve the interests of my constituents by joining the Liberal Democrats.

Brexit has not only sucked all the political oxygen from government over the past three years, but it has also consumed the funding and energy that should have been invested in local communities, tackling climate change and supporting the workforce and infrastructure of our NHS, schools and transport.

Our party is going from strength to strength.

We now have more than 116,000 members, as well as almost 15,000 registered supporters.

Our team in the House of Commons is growing too. A little over a week ago, we welcomed Jane Dodds as our newest MP.

Today, we welcome another addition to our team. Dr Sarah Wollaston.

I can think of about 350 million reasons why a promise from Boris Johnson isn't worth the paper (or bus) it's written on.

The Government promised that the rights of EU citizens wouldn't change after Brexit. So did Vote Leave - many of whose senior figures are now Government officials.

But now we're hearing that if Brexit happens, the Government plans to make EU citizens pay to use the NHS.

Councillor Andy Kelly (Milnrow & Newhey), leader of Rochdale Liberal Democrats, took a rare break in his busy schedule to talk to us about local and national politics in 2019 and beyond.

Doing what we say

First of all we talked about his re-election by the Milnrow & Newhey ward with a majority of 1200 votes. Andy pointed out that this was not simply the result of a great campaign that lasted a few weeks. It was the excellent track record that he and his LibDem ward colleagues Cllr. Irene Davidson and Cllr. Dave Bamford have established over many years.