• Davey: International leadership is needed now
• Davey urges Starmer to forge new UK-Canada defence pact to reduce reliance on Trump
• Greene to Tories: It’s Kemi-geddon
• Greene: Badenoch might as well say vote Lib Dem

Davey: International leadership is needed now

Following Israel’s strikes in Iran overnight, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

People across the UK and the world will be fearing the break-out of widespread regional conflict in the Middle East, following Israel’s strikes overnight.

The UK must work with allies to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions through diplomacy, not war.

The UK Government should urge both Israel and Iran not to do anything that will escalate the situation any further.

International leadership is needed now.

Davey urges Starmer to forge new UK-Canada defence pact to reduce reliance on Trump

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called on the Prime Minister to forge a new UK-Canada defence pact, to strengthen national security and boost the economy, while reducing both countries’ reliance on Donald Trump’s US administration.

It comes as Keir Starmer is expected to arrive in Canada ahead of the G7 summit beginning this weekend.

This week the Trump administration said it would review the submarine deal with the UK and Australia, saying the security pact must fit its “America First” agenda.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Trump has shown his disregard for our collective security time and time again – not least this week, displaying total indifference to his traditional allies by threatening the future of the AUKUS defence agreement.

We should work with our Commonwealth ally Canada as it joins the UK in increasing defence spending, but also looks to move away from its reliance on US military exports.

That is why I am urging the Prime Minister to propose a new, bilateral UK-Canada defence pact at the G7 this weekend, making us more secure while also boosting British manufacturing.

Greene to Tories: It’s Kemi-geddon

Speaking as the Scottish Conservative conference gets underway at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene said:

The Scottish Conservatives will be lucky to fill the changing room at Murrayfield given the pace at which they are losing people. It’s Kemi-geddon.

Kemi Badenoch sneering at the Lib Dems for being the party that will fix your local church roof shows exactly why the Conservatives have lost the public’s trust. So many people who once backed Ruth Davidson are completely scunnered at what the party has turned into. That’s why I left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats.

Fresh from winning more MPs in Scotland than the Scottish Conservatives last year, everyone can send a message to the Tories and elect a Liberal Democrat MSP using their peach regional ballot paper next May to bring some much needed decency back into Scottish politics.

Greene: Badenoch might as well say vote Lib Dem

Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s appearance at the Scottish Conservative conference, where she indicated that recent defections from the party are ‘a good thing’, as well as implying that two current serving Scottish Conservative MSPs should leave the party due to their support for gender reforms, Scottish Liberal Democrat Jamie Greene MSP said:

Ms Badenoch must know by now that political success comes from persuasion, not arrogant pomposity. This “good riddance” attitude is precisely the reason so many have left the party in droves, myself included.

Now it looks like she wants to bizarrely cast off two current serving Scottish Conservative MSPs for not being Conservative enough, due to their support for gender reforms.

When her party lost direction and lurched to the extremes, the rational response should have been some deep soul searching as to why their narrow-minded rhetoric is costing them votes and losing them members.

Her instinct to casually dismiss anyone scunnered with the Conservatives illustrates perfectly just how out of touch she is with the existential crisis her party faces.

By undoing Ruth Davidson’s broad-church Conservativism in favour of right-wing propaganda, she and Russell Findlay seem set to consign the Scottish Tories to the history books for a generation.

Kemi Badenoch might as well just come out and say it: if you don’t like us, you should vote Lib Dem.