Whatever the weather, there will be sandals and socks aplenty in Bournemouth this weekend, as the Lib Dems descend on the coastal town for their party conference. It’s a chance for them to get their voice heard and make an impact, something that has not happened much in the 14 months since a hugely successful General Election that resulted in a record 72 MPs heading to the House of Commons.
A Lib Dem Peer feels that because the party is “reasonable,” they are simply not getting coverage
The Lib Dems are polling at 15 per cent, according to the latest YouGov data, just above half of what Reform are on (29 per cent). Yet it doesn’t seem like they are landing a blow. Frustration boiled over recently, with one MP warning leader Sir Ed Davey to drop his “bullshit” stunts. (I urged Sir Ed to grow up almost a year ago.)
But the Lib Dems insist this is an outrider opinion, with one insider telling me that many Lib Dem parliamentarians were “pissed off” at the outburst. It’s certainly true that the complaining MP appears to be something of a lone voice. Nobody I spoke to expressed any interest in throwing their frequently wetsuit-clad leader overboard.
One senior MP conceded that “our messaging has been too cautious, which is why we are not attracting the attention we should. This has stunted our poll rating.” They added that while Sir Ed is not under pressure, “he needs to be more confident because he actually has a distinctive voice that people resonate with.”
Another MP added that there are “lots of positives for us, and we now need to look creatively to doing more than being on Labour and Tories shoulders’ and overtaking them.” They noted that it’s possible that having such small Parliamentary representation is actually helping Reform: “Only 5 MPs means that political attention is unusually not on Parliament, which denies us some of the benefits we’d otherwise expect given that we have 72 MPs.”
A frequent complaint from Lib Dem representatives is not about Sir Ed or his leadership but about the media. The party feels strongly that they do not get a fair chance to put their case forward, while, as one MP put it, “if Nigel [Farage] mentions what he has for breakfast it makes it to BBC News.” They feel this is a reaction to Brexit coverage, “an overcompensation of wanting to represent Reform-like views because they’re often not in the newsroom.”
A Lib Dem Peer feels that because the party is “reasonable,” they are simply not getting the coverage, but insists it will not be pushed into more extreme position. Others also point to Parliamentary successes, including legislative wins on issues such as the carers’ allowance and puppy smuggling.
That is all very worthy and worthwhile, but I don’t think that if I walked down my local high street anyone would know about these ‘wins’. They would, though, likely know that Farage wants to “stop the boats”, whether or not they like the policy or care about the specifics of it.
A Lib Dem frontbencher countered, insisting that “if you walk down the road in a Lib Dem held seat, I think you’d hear something rather different than you’d hear in a non-held seat,” hinting at the party’s ability to embed itself into communities in which it gets itself an electoral foothold.
One area in which the Lib Dems have made a stand that has had some cut through is on the war in Gaza. Sir Ed declined his invitation to the State Banquet, apparently to make the point that president Donald Trump should be helping to bring the conflict to an end. Sir Ed got a few media hits because of this, and it is pretty certain he would not have got to make his point to Trump in person anyway. However, as Jonathan Sacerdoti put it on these pages: “If anything, this stunt implicitly acknowledges that Trump and the King would be less likely to notice him if he did turn up.” Whatever the reality, it all just looks a bit…pointless, and has led to his MPs being taunted on TV by their opponents, who insist that grown up politicians get themselves into the room.
Sir Ed Davey is a likeable figure. His party has policies that clearly appeal to significant swathes of the electorate. That is how they got to 72 MPs. However, filling up the green benches is only the start. At a time at which there is a horrendous, and horrendously unpopular, Labour government, and a Conservative party in seemingly terminal decline, the Lib Dems should be offering more. Maybe this weekend’s conference will be the beginning of them doing so.
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