Category Archives: News

Ed Davey was on Laura Kuenssberg for the second Sunday in a row to talk about the local election results. It was a good interview but I have one rather large note for him at the end.

Kuenssberg challenged him on the fact that our vote share didn’t move? Shouldn’t you have been hoovering up in share of the vote, she asked. Here is how the interview unfolded:

We had a fantastic night, Laura, winning a majority in Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Shropshire, becoming the largest party in and almost winning in Gloucestershire, Devon, Hertfordshire and Wiltshire so we were very pleased with our results. We are now the second party in local government, overtaking the Conservatives and I think we are on track to overtake the Conservatives at the next General Election so whichever way you look at it, it was a great result for the Liberal Democrats.

LK You are in the leafiest place I have ever seen, you are very obviously targeting leafy Middle England but does that mean that you have given up on other parts of the country

Ed:

I think Middle England is the rest of the country. It is the whole country. It is the vast majority of people who want common sense, practical policies to fix the things that need fixing whether it’s potholes or social care.

We are now the official opposition in County Durham. It was the Conservatives and Labour who lost seats to Reform there. We actually gained seats and we are going to hold Reform to account. In Hull and East Riding we didn’t quite get over the line there but it was a brilliant team performance. In next year’s local elections in many of those northern cities I expect us to do well. Actually it was in the south where Reform got beaten, the Liberal Democrats holding back Reform in places like Buckinghamshire.

I am really proud. I think this is a massive step forward for the Liberal Democrats. I think that it’s our community politics, our focus on the issues that matter to people is coming through. I’m proud that the Liberal Democrats are taking on Reform and I think it could work if we can show that their support for people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk actually isn’t very popular. Look what Mark Carney did in Canada, defeating a hard right opponent by standing up for patriotism for Canada. Anthony Albanese in Australia defeating the hard right candidate who liked Trump.

If we can expose the fact that Nigel Farage is so keen on Donald Trump that will mean that Liberal Democrats will come through. I have been very disappointed in the fact that Labour and Conservatives have almost copied Reform and moved towards Reform. I think we should call them out for what they stand for.

LK Nigel Farage said he took his inspiration from the Liberal Democrats, would you take any inspiration from him.

Ed

He clearly doesn’t share our values and we don’t share his. I think what’s going to happen now that they have to run Councils, we will see what they do. In the election, Farage said they would cut finding for special educational needs and disabled children and young people. I think families across the country will be really worried by that.