Jo Swinson has made great progress, but revoking Article 50 is a step too far

Editorial: The Lib Dems are pushing their luck. This plan fails to close the democratic circle left half drawn by the referendum of June 2016

The Brexit genie is out of the bottle – it cannot simply be wished away (PA)

Given the startling progress made since she took over from Vince Cable in July, it is perhaps not surprising that the Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson is getting a little ahead of herself.

In announcing a position of revoking Article 50 and not just “stopping Brexit” but cancelling it, she seems to be doubling down on her anti-Brexit credentials and appeal. Perhaps she has an eye on the 6 million or so who signed the Revoke Article 50 petition last year; they certainly outnumber the 3.3 million votes the Lib Dems picked up at the European elections in the summer.

Perhaps too she would like to strike an even stronger contrast with the tragi-comic contortions of Labour’s policy on Brexit, and the increasingly reckless Conservatives under Boris Johnson, rapidly becoming a subsidiary of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. It is a bold approach, and not without its risks for what is still Britain’s fourth party.