Each week, LDV allows each leadership candidate one article on LDV. This is Ed Davey’s for this week.
As ballots open for the Liberal Democrat leadership election, we are endorsing Ed Davey MP as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats.
We believe the Liberal Democrats need a leader with the experience, vision and judgement to navigate us through these turbulent times for our party and our country. The coronavirus pandemic leaves us facing economic chaos. The risk of a no-deal Brexit will only heighten those challenges. The fight against the climate emergency is ever more pressing. Our leader must be someone with the attention to detail and policy depth to tackle that triple threat. Ed Davey’s experience as a trained economist and of trebling renewable energy in Government are exactly what we need right now.
The party needs to rebuild on solid foundations, with a leader that will drive the party forward at a national level and will work with local parties and grassroots members in order to help them win crucial elections in 2021 and beyond. Ed Davey’s knowledge of the party and experience of winning in local, regional and national elections, as well as inside Government, will prove vital to that rebuilding operation.
Ed has presented a clear, coherent vision for the future of the party that stands for a fairer, greener, more caring country. A country where we give universal free childcare to parents, where we invest £150bn in green jobs and renewable homes and where we give the 10 million carers in the UK a new, better deal.
That platform, with Ed Davey as leader, is one that will help us rebuild the party, win elections and put more Liberal Democrats in town halls, council chambers and Parliaments across the country.
We would urge you to join us in voting for him.
Signed:
- Daisy Cooper – MP for St Albans
- Tim Farron – MP for Westmorland & Lonsdale
- Christine Jardine – MP for Edinburgh West
- Munira Wilson – MP for Twickenham
- Sarah Olney – MP for Richmond Park
- Sir Ming Campbell – Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats
- Baroness Dorothy Thornhill – Author of the 2019 General Election Review
- Lord Jim Wallace – Former Deputy First Minister of Scotland
- Lord John Shipley – Former Leader of Newcastle City Council
- Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed – Leader of the Sheffield Liberal Democrats and former Yorkshire & Humber MEP
- Caroline Voaden – Group Leader of the Liberal Democrats MEPs and former South West MEP
- Caroline Pidgeon AM – Member of the London Assembly
- Cllr Stephen Robinson – Leader of Chelmsford City Council
- Cllr Sarah Butikofer – Leader, North Norfolk District Council
- Cllr Val Keitch – Leader, South Somerset District Council
- Cllr Stuart Bray – Leader, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council
- Mayor Peter Taylor – Mayor of Watford
- Sarah Wollaston – Former MP for Totnes
- Stephen Williams – Former MP for Bristol West
- Mark Williams – Former MP for Ceredigion
A full list of the 200+ signatories is available here: https://www.voteed.uk/open-letter
* Daisy Cooper is the Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans.
8 Comments
I would too if I had a vote. However, a quick read through the list of ‘supporters‘ makes me wonder whether the ‘rank and file’ might just have other ideas!
Getting Tim Farron’s backing is a huge boost.
I probably would too, John… though,
it’s interesting to see the full list is in a descending order of greatness and un-elected might …. loads of Lords at the top , and significantly, a lot of former this and former that further down the list. Plebs at the bottom. Might the party be heading for a mini Asquith-Lloyd George split again ?
The entrance of the Peers from Iolanthe – YouTubewww.youtube.com › watch
Video for entrance of the peers chorus from iolanthe harrogate5:35
I have no say in this but I rate Layla as a high risk candidate who stands a chance of doing something different.
I rate Ed as a low risk candidate who will do nothing different at all.
I do have a vote and recognise that whoever gets the job of leader will have their work cut out to move the Liberal Democrats up the poll ratings, but what I do know is that he or she will stand head and shoulders above the present occupier of No 10.
10:30 pm and still no sign of a voting form, how many per hour can they send out?
I too noticed the hierarchical nature of Ed’s list of supporters, David Raw, and at my all girls’ school took part in Iolanthe as a peer. Whilst I don’t think any of our peers would strut around talking of blue blood I must say my heart sank and a terrible sense of ennui descended over me. I can just about understand why someone would want to be a Lord so they can carry on with political activity but why on earth would someone want to be a Sir? I remember a leading Tory in my city spending hours on the phone trying to persuade people to grant him a Sirdom. There’s always at least one Tory in a constituency who embodies everything that we dislike most about them and he was very definitely it.
I’d like a leader who counted the whole team which worked to put him/her in Parliament as the most important supporters of all and for me this list reveals an attitude of mind which is the opposite of that which we need in the party. I have nothing against any individual on that list and I’m sure they’ve worked very hard for the party but together they seem to me to represent the reverence for kudos that as Lib Dems we should be fighting not supporting.
I am glad that Sarah Wollaston is still with us and active.
It would be wrong to denigrate Jim Wallace, Scotland achieved STV from their coalition with Labour. Jim was able to co-operate with Labour’s First Minister and deputised twice.
It would be useful to see which former MEPs stood for the Commons and what their results were.