Sir Ed Davey has just finished his conference speech in Brighton. No party is likely to hold a more upbeat political jamboree this year than the one which the Lib Dems have just concluded. With a record 72 MPs, July’s result ensured Davey became his party’s most successful leader since the days of Asquith and Lloyd George. So it’s no surprise that much of his speech effectively comprised a victory lap, in which he thanked the many, many people involved in his party’s triumphs across the blue wall. There were name checks too for Davey’s predecessors: Liberal legends of old like Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown.
The second takeaway from the speech was just how much time Davey intends to spend attacking the last government
This being a Lib Dem speech, there were also plenty of bad jokes received with good humour. He noted his Question Time appearance in which he revealed he met his wife Emily at a party working group on housing. ‘Since my revelation, I’m told our Federal Policy Committee has been inundated with applications for the next one’ he said. ‘Don’t join Tinder. Join the Liberal Democrats!’ He likened the Tory leadership contest to a bad reality show. ‘I hear they’re planning to call it “Strictly Come Pandering”’, he said to polite titters, before suggesting ‘The Great British Blame Off’ or maybe just ‘Pointless.’ Boom boom.
Yet two things were apparent from Davey’s 40-minute address. The first is how much focus the party will spend in the next four years on health and social care, with Davey urging the government to ‘winter-proof the NHS’. The subject is one close to his heart, given his experiences caring for his disabled son, John, whom he talked about in a particularly moving section. But as well as humanising the leader, Davey’s focus on the NHS shows a canny understanding of how the Lib Dems can appeal to voters on both left and right. The Lib Dem gains in wealthier seats across the South of England mean he has to find an appeal to voters whose interests are about to be hit by the new Labour government and who might switch back to the Tories in 2029 to secure a change of government. Talking up the NHS is perhaps the his best way of marrying voters’ interests with his party’s values.
The second takeaway from the speech was just how much time Davey intends to spend attacking the last government. The Tories are now in opposition but that did not stop the Lib Dem leader from repeatedly castigating them for their failures. ‘It will fall to us to be the responsible opposition that any government needs’ he said. ‘An essential role in our democracy – and a role that today’s Conservative party simply cannot fulfil. They showed themselves to be totally unfit to govern our country… and the Conservatives are already showing that they are unfit for opposition too.’ The dozens of gains made across the blue wall – and the lack of Labour/Lib Dem marginals – mean the incentives to attack the Tories are obvious. But with polling suggesting that voters want the Lib Dems to effectively hold the government to account, there may come a point later in this parliament when Davey has to put business before pleasure in directing more of his fire at Labour.
Few surprises then, but the party faithful, drunk off July’s triumphs, lapped it up regardless. Davey’s walk on music, ‘Take A Chance on Me’, perhaps summed it up well. He has pledged to do his very best, now it is up to the Lib Dems to put ‘constructive opposition’ to the test.
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