Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats are trying to rebuild amid the Brexit chaos. Buoyed by a strong result in the European Parliament elections, the Lib Dems have been polling well this summer — and receiving plenty of praise from the centrist commentariat. More recently, the party ranks have swelled with defectors from the Tories and Labour. But just how much do these new Lib Dems reflect liberal views?

This issue boiled over when the Lib Dems welcomed former Tory MP Philip Lee, who broke with his party over Brexit. Lee’s record in parliament is anything but liberal. He voted against the 2013 act legalizing same-sex marriages. More shockingly, he personally wrote and proposed an amendment to force asylum seekers and applicants for UK visas to disclose their HIV status, and “demonstrate they are not carriers” of “proscribed pathogens,” including Hepatitis B.

Jennie Rigg, Chair of the Lib Dems’ LGBT+ group, was so angry about her party rolling out the red carpet for Lee that she resigned, denouncing Lee as “a homophobe, a xenophobe, and someone who thinks people should be barred from the country if they are ill.” “Apparently as long as you are on the right side on Brexit we’ll take you,” she said, lamenting the party’s abandonment of “soul and principles.”