When already this year you’ve bungee-jumped, jetskied and led your party to its best election result for a century, how can you possibly top that as a politician? If you are Ed Davey, the answer is obvious: try for a Christmas No 1.
That, at least, is the ambition for the Liberal Democrat leader, who has teamed up with a choir of young carers to record an original song of theirs, complete with a Christmas-heavy video featuring festive jumpers and hats, tinsel, and baubles being hung on a tree.
As with Davey’s many stunts for the general election, there is a serious purpose: to generate awareness of the plight of carers, particularly younger ones, and to raise money for good causes.
The genesis of this latest move by 2024’s most consistently surprising MP came in the spring, when the widow of Davey’s former choirmaster sent a recording of him aged 13 singing a solo version of In The Deep Midwinter.
After the election, when Davey and his team sought ways to push their message over carers, the idea of music came up again. The party hit on the idea of teaming up with the Bath Philharmonia orchestra and their Young Carers’ Choir to record a version of their self-written song, Love is Enough, which is released on Thursday.
The result is uplifting and festive, and perhaps just the right side of saccharine to appeal to Christmas listeners. It does not, however, feature much audible input from Davey, whose contributions are slightly buried in the glossy mix.
Asked if his adult voice is not quite as angelic as when he was a 13-year-old soloist, Davey told the Guardian: “Definitely. But the young carers is what it’s all about. It is the Young Carers’ Choir with Bath Philharmonia – featuring me. I’m not central to this. I sang all the choruses, by the way.”
Davey has made a better deal for carers a key element of his party’s policies, drawing heavily on his own experiences as a young carer to his mother, and his caring responsibilities now to his teenage son, John, who is disabled.
One of the Lib Dems’ breakout moments in the election was an election broadcast video that showed Davey with John, which was widely watched and praised.
The Christmas single has a similarly policy-based aim beyond the money raised, which will go to the Carers Trust and Bath Philarmonia. Davey said he also hoped to generate publicity for the help available to young carers.
Davey said that, while filming the video, he chatted to many of the choir members: “When you talk to young carers, you don’t actually talk much about their caring responsibilities, but one or two told me about them.
“And I was in awe of what they are doing, with such heavy responsibilities. I think that getting a break, like doing this single, meant a lot to them.”
Is the Christmas No 1 really in their sights? “I think Mariah Carey and all the rest of them are very worried,” Davey responded, deadpan. It might not happen. But when it comes to a party that began the year with 15 MPs and ended it with 72, you can never rule it out.
