Tag Archives: interviews

Ed Davey on Kuenssberg: We’ll be a better opposition than the Conservatives

Ed Davey did his Conference interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning. Speaking from the top of the Brighton Centre after arriving at the Conference by jet-ski yesterday, he was quizzed about whether we were going soft on Labour. Were we actually going to challenge them.

Ed was keen to point out that we already had on issues like the Winter Fuel Payment, and we’d do it more effectively than the official opposition.

We will challenge them when we disagree with them. We’ll be a better opposition than the Conservatives who are going further to the right

We are keeping people’s trust by talking about the issues they care about – the NHS and cost of living.

He said that the Government had already made mistakes on both of those things.

Being constructive means you have a different tone. You don’t do the yah-boo politics that people are sick of.

We are trying to put forward our own ideas.

Kuenssberg suggested that Labour don’t have to listen to us. Ed replied

You have to do opposition in a particular way to get heard. We’ll put forward ideas we championed at the election and our MPs will be champions for our constituents and we will get our voices heard.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment

Ed Davey on Kuenssberg – what next for the Liberal Democrats?

There was a lovely shot at the top of this morning’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg of a very happy looking Ed Davey standing in his garden. Some might say he even looked a wee bit smug, but he is entirely entitled to do so after our amazing result on Thursday.

Lib Dem MPs will make up the third largest group in Parliament. That means that Ed will get two questions to the Prime Minister every week. We’ll get more speaking time. We’ll get more media time. I mean, we’re on Kuenssberg for the second  Sunday in a row.  We will still need to make the absolute most of every opportunity we get, but it’s a massive step forward. It’s strange to think that there will be only 49 more Tories than there are of us. While they will be ripping themselves apart trying to decide whether they are going to go full throttle ultra right or to try to regain some semblance of one nation conservatism, we will be united, dynamic and brimming with ideas.

It will be a change in dynamics, too. Our returning MPs have had to juggle several portfolios each and they have done so admirably.  We will now have the capacity to share the workload and have backbenchers for the first time in a decade. Maybe we might get a Select Committee chair or two.

Anyway, back to Ed’s interview.

Congratulations, I suppose, said Laura. A bit grudging, I have to say.

Her first question: What do you plan to do with all these new MPs?

It was an amazing result for us. We are excited by this opportunity. We fought the campaign putting health and care at the top of our list and we will fight in Parliament on health and care. I have already called for an emergency budget for health and care this month so we can start to rescue our NHS which has been brought to its knees by the Conservatives.

Will we be as tough on Labour as the Conservatives? Ed said that we would be putting forward our ideas on care, on the environment in the hope that Labour would take some of them on board.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 25 Comments

Ed on Kuenssberg: Lib Dems are excited and confident about election

Ed Davey did his first interveiw of the year on Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday this morning. The first question, was, of course, on the Post Office scandal and Ed’s role as Minister.

Her first question : Why did it take you so long to say sorry?

I probably should have said sooner early on.

It’s a huge scandal and our hearts go out to postmasters. They need to get exonerations and compensation quickly and we need to get the truth from the enquiry.

He talked about two sub postmasters in his constituency, one of whom spent 16 months in prison.

I’m going to fight for those and join others in making sure that the Government gives the sub postmasters the fair deal they deserve.

He actually has been fighting for them since there was evidence that there were flaws with Horizon and called for the enquiry back in 2015.

Kuenssberg showed him the letter he wrote to Alan Bates in 2010 saying that there would be no point to a meeting.  Ed replied that he had only been in office for 11 days and  was advised by his officials not to. When Bates wrote to him again, though, he wanted to know more about his concerns and was the first post office minister on record to meet him.

When that meeting took place in late 2010, he said he was concerned about the issues Alan Bates raised about Horizon. He took the concerns to his officials and the Post Office and was given categorical assurances that there was no remote access.

He said that it turns out that the Post Office were lying to him and that conspiracy of lies means that we need systemic change in how we deal with things like this.

Kuenssberg asked him if he’d never stopped to think that there must be something going on here.

He said that he wasn’t asked about it in Parliament. He said that things didn’t really change until the BBC’s Panorama programme found hard evidence in the form of a whistleblower from Fujitsu in August 2015.

Kuenssberg then moved on to the General Election, asking  if we weren’t embarrassed by the results in the by-elections last week.

Ed responded:

What we are seeing in this Parliament is huge success for Liberal Democrats. In those 4 by-elections we had staggering success in true blue areas.

We’ve had some of our best local elections ever and we have had by far the best success in local government by-elections.

We go into the next election with a real sense of excitement. There’s loads of areas where if you want to get rid of your Conservative MP, you’ve got to vote for the Liberal Democrats. I’ve talked about the “Blue Wall” where we are having massive success against the Conservatives and the south west as well, we are coming back there. So we go into this election year more confident than for many a year.

Kuenssberg asked if he was confident that we can be the third party again. His answer was simple. “Yes.”

Earlier she  brought up the Guardian letter signed by 30 prominent party members back in November as we reported here.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 31 Comments

Ed Davey: Boris Johnson is concentrating on saving his own skin, not rising living costs

In a strong appearance on The Sunday Morning Show, Ed Davey called on the Government to hold a cost of living summit in No 10, a work event, not a party, if you like.

He called for a windfall tax on energy companies and said that if the Conservatives had stuck with the policies he introduced when he was Energy Secretary, our bills would be £2.5 billion. You can watch the whole thing here:

He was challenged by Sophie Raworth on his tweet:

Ed replied that he had respect for rank and file police officers who put their lives on the line to keep us safe. For them to do their job, the public have to have confidence in them and the way the Met has handled this has undermined that.

He took us through the Met’s actions of the past few weeks, first saying they wouldn’t investigate the Downing Street Parties, then they said they might but wanted to let Sue Gray get on with her report, then they would investigate but Sue Gray’s report could be published in full and then they changed their minds for a fourth time and said that Sue Gray’s report had to wait for their investigation to be completed. “This is chaos, absolute chaos.” It might be cock up, he added, but it could also be something much worse.”

He said that he had called for an investigation by the Metropolitan Police several weeks ago. If they had done that then, they would have completed their  investigation and we wouldn’t have the paralysis in Government that we are seeing now.

He said that nobody wanted the Met to make such a hash of this and had a go at Boris.

“We have a Prime Minister who has broken the rules and lied about it to Parliament. No-one trusts this Prime Minister. It’s why I’ve called very strongly that he should resign.”

 

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments

Ed Davey: The Conservatives can be beaten anywhere

You have to hand it to Ed Davey. The poor man has had Covid since Monday but he hasn’t let it stop him contributing to and celebrating our historic by-election victory in North Shropshire.

He might have been stuck indoors but he maraphoned like a trooper.

Perhaps the only benefit of his self isolation is that he is unlikely now to get a Council Tax Bill from Shropsire Council given how much time he has spent there in the past month.

Covid is not much fun, even when you are fully vaccinated and boostered as Ed is, but he has stepped up to …

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments

Heartbreak, humility and humour – Alex Cole-Hamilton talks to Matt Forde

A wee treat for your commute today, or to have on in the background while you work from home.

New Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton was the guest on this week’s Political Party podcast hosted by Matt Forde.

It’s a brilliant chat, incredibly serious and moving in places, absolutely hilarious in others. At the start, Matt Forde warns us that it includes Alex’s account of a man who died by suicide in front of him a few years back. It’s one of the reasons he has been so persistent in questioning the Scottish Government on their lack of a suicide prevention strategy or lack of mental health support.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment

Willie Rennie: “A cheerful voice for a more decent politics”

Willie Rennie has done two major interviews this weekend talking about his decision to stand aside as Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and his hopes for the future.

The Times (£) leader had praise for him yesterday, too:

It is to be hoped that Mr Rennie remains active in public life. He has been a cheerful voice for a more decent politics and his brand of low-key, relaxed liberalism is more necessary than ever. After a summer running in the hills he should return to the fray, ready to play his part in building a bigger and better centre.

Willie spoke to Magnus Linklater for the paper (£) and talked about his hope that Labour and the Lib Dems would work more closely together to present a progressive, pro-UK alternative to the nationalism and populism of the SNP and Conservatives:

“I think working together with Labour on issues of common interest would be a good thing,” he said in an interview with The Times. “I wouldn’t run before we can walk. But build confidence between the parties and also amongst the electorate to show we’re getting our act together.”

This is about trying to show that for middle Scotland there is something better and stronger than the Conservatives or the SNP, that it’s got energy, it’s got momentum, it’s got ideas, and that’s the most important thing, so people know that if they vote for it, it will be worth it,” he added. “The actual mechanism is less important — it’s the energy behind it that matters.”

He talked about how much Scotland had changed in the past decade or so – and not for the better:

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 24 Comments

Ed Davey’s first big interview – hear what he has to say on Lib Dems’ relevance, Europe and climate protests

Following on from his first big speech, to ALDC Conference, yesterday, Ed Davey gave his first big interview on the Sunday media round, to Sky’s Sophy Ridge.

What, she asked, was the point of the Lib Dems?

We stand for key principles on civil liberties, social justice, the environment.

We are not getting that through to voters

We need to listen and understand why people don’t think that they are on their side.

He talked about how he started his listening exercise by doing a 3 hour lunch shift in a Stockport fish and chip shop. He argued that this listening exercise is the way we can make ourselves relevant to people.

Sophy Ridge asked what was our single radical policy to cut through to people.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 15 Comments

Jo Swinson says her constituents are proud she’s taking on Boris Johnson

Jo Swinson has given two major press interviews in the past two days – one to Scotland on Sunday talking about her fight to retain her East Dunbartonshire seat and one to The Times (£) which is more about what she and the Liberal Democrats offer nationally – an open hearted, open minded outward-looking liberal country.

In the Times piece, she talks about the unique Lib Dem offer:

The 39-year-old leader of the Liberal Democrats is from a different generation to Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn (16 years younger than the prime minister and 31 years younger than the Labour leader) with a baby and a five-year-old to juggle on the campaign trail while her husband is away on business. She brought a bubble machine and popcorn maker to the Lib Dems’ election launch. “I think I am quite different to the other leaders,” she says. “They’ve all got an outlook which is very much harking back to the past, whether that’s the 1870s or the 1970s, and I’m very focused on the future we build, one that is open-hearted, open-minded, outward-looking, internationalist and liberal.”

And she tackles the issue of this week, which has been attacks from Labour for not standing down in their favour:

For those still in the Labour Party, many are conflicted but ultimately they are standing on a platform to get the hard left and Jeremy Corbyn into No 10 . . . Labour is not a party of Remain.” As for the Brexit Party standing down candidates in Tory-held seats, she says: “It sends a very clear message to moderate One Nation Conservatives about where Boris Johnson is — he is at one with Nigel Farage and there are a lot of Conservative voters who are very unhappy at that.”

She also describes the challenges of returning to work as a minister after maternity leave.

In the Scotland on Sunday piece, she talked about how she was on the side of most people in her East Dunbartonshire seat:

“Both are live issues – and that’s different to 2017 when it was much more about the prospect of an indyref. Now, with where the Brexit process has got to, people are much more concerned about that.

“This is a constituency where around two-thirds of people voted to stay in the UK, and are around three-quarters voted to stay in the EU. It’s very clear that people in East Dunbartonshire want Scotland to stay in the UK and the UK to be in the EU. It’s only the Liberal Democrats that are standing up for that position.”

And when she’s going round the doors, her constituents like her new role as leader:

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 8 Comments

WATCH: Jo Swinson’s interview with Alastair Campbell

Jo Swinson has talked to Alastair Campbell for GQ magazine. They met twice. Once on 27th August and then after the Parliamentary drama on 3-4 September.

You can watch the whole thing on You Tube:

The written transcript is here. but you need to watch the video to get the whole thing.

It’s well worth 47 minutes of your time to see a thoughtful conversation which ranges from Brexit to Scottish independence and why people are turning to the Liberal Democrats:

Tens of thousands joined the Lib Dems since the start of May because people want someone that speaks to those small “l” liberal values for opportunity, internationalism, equality, fairness, treating people as individuals.

The biggest reason she can’t deal with Boris:

I don’t think he cares! I think he really doesn’t care. What he did in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe just makes me furious. He doesn’t seem to show any kind of remorse or feel bad about it – he says he feels anguish, but he shows no evidence of it whatsoever. All he cares about is Boris Johnson and becoming prime minister and he was prepared to say whatever it took to get him into Number Ten. One of the reasons I have stood for leadership of my party is that I think the public needs a better choice. At the next election, the offer of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn is not good enough. That’s why I’ve set out ambitious plans for the Liberal Democrats, that we are aiming for government and I am a candidate for prime minister, because I think the country needs us to be doing that.

And why she thinks she is the best candidate for PM:

When I joined the Liberal Democrats I didn’t think that I would be sitting here today and talking about potentially becoming prime minister and running for that, but when I look at Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, hand on heart, I am very confident I could do a better job than either of them. We have got a no-deal Brexit around the corner; we have a climate emergency that we have less than 12 years to tackle; we have got poverty in our communities; we have real problems with our politics more generally. I genuinely feel we need to make sure that the Liberal Democrats can be that home for people with liberal values who want and demand and deserve something better than either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn.

Alastair then makes the mistake of mentioning how difficult it must be for her because she has young kids:

AC: That feels very hard to me. Two young children, including your baby, taking on the leadership of a party.

JS: Hang on, did Tony Blair not have a baby when he was prime minister, I seem to recall?

AC: He did.

JS: Yeah. I mean, men do do this. It has been known.

When they met on 6th September, Alastair asked Jo if she thought Boris Johnson had fascist tendencies:

I am not going to put that label on him. You have to be careful with language. But I found the imagery of that speech in front of police officers, where he was effectively saying he might not obey the rule of law, very worrying. The juxtaposition was quite sinister. It felt rather authoritarian.

There was an interesting discussion about the risks of splitting the opposition vote:

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments

Layla Moran on her Palestinian heritage, and what she’s fighting for at Westminster

Layla Moran ht the headlines this week when Tory MPs jeered her as she got up to ask the Prime Minister a question.

She’s now been speaking to Times Red Box about the issues that matter to her.

She talks about her Palestinian heritage:

She is also the first member of parliament of Palestinian descent, through her mother, a Christian whose relatives became a “typical diaspora family” after they were forced out of their home in Jerusalem.

She has already been adopted an unofficial ambassador for the Palestinian community in parliament, but is reluctant to be defined solely by her heritage. “I think I could not get away with not being an ambassador for the Palestinian people but that wasn’t why I was elected. It was to fight for education and the NHS.”

Ms Moran says there is a desire amongst Palestinians to show a different face to the world. “They want people to see that unlike refugee-ridden, poor, downtrodden peoples, in fact Arabs are very proud of our culture and we are intelligent and articulate and talking about that things that matter like education and health.”

She has wanted to be an MP for some time:

Posted in News | Also tagged | 1 Comment

In conversation with David Laws

The former Liberal Democrat MP and government minister discusses his new book about the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government, says what he would do differently in hindsight, and looks into his crystal ball to see what the future holds for the party…

Your new book about the Coalition has certainly made a few waves following its Sunday newspaper serialisation – the right kind of waves?

I think inevitably there is a temptation in the press to shed light on things which are currently topical, such as Tory divisions on the referendum. But the primary reason I wrote the book was to give an accurate, historic account of the Coalition and a proper explanation of our part in it – and if the serialisation results in more people reading the book, so much the better.

It sounds like you’re, by and large, proud of what the Lib Dems achieved in government?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments

Nick Clegg talks economy, snoopers charter and human rights with Andrew Neil

Yesterday, Nick Clegg did a long and quite technical interview with Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics. They talked about the fragility of the economy, measures taken by the Coalition to boost construction and manufacturing and  the Green Investment Bank. They also talked about Nick’s decision to kill off the so-called Snoopers’ Charter. Neil showed him quotes from senior police officers and he said quite unequivocally that the Police had enough powers already. You can watch the whole interview here and for a quick summary, I’ve done a collection of my tweets on Storify.

 

–>

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments

Tim Farron talks to the Huffington Post about getting out of the Coalition

Party President Tim Farron has been talking to the Huffington Post about everything from the local election results, the presentation errors in the Budget, his leadership ambitions, potential coalition deal breakers and exit strategies.

He is adamant that Lords Reform will be delivered within this Parliament:

“The coalition agreement is not something that you can pick and choose from,” he says. “If people believe that Lords reform is something that can be dispensed with, for instance, or that it’s tolerable for the Tory whips to not deliver a majority or a diluted Bill, it does bring into a question of trust, and

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Ade Adeyemo
    We often fail to see that there are victims around us and when we do, most of us feel powerless to help. What you are doing is amazing. Keep fighting the good f...
  • Steve Nash
    I also share the sentiments of Chris Bowers. I would like to see a more conciliatory approach which speaks to those who now think that it would have been be...
  • David Raw
    @ John Waller. You say, “the Danes remember the British setting fire to their fleet and then bombarding Copenhagen in Napoleon’s time”. I’m afraid I ...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Mark Frankel, If you ethnically cleanse 750,000 people from their homelands and treat them and others who you haven't displaced as second class , haven't y...
  • John Waller
    Tom you say: (Trump) has already threatened Denmark with “massive tariffs” unless it sells him Greenland. Conversely, if he likes a country’s policies, Tr...