Ed Davey has closed the Liberal Democrats’ conference with a pledge to guarantee in law that anyone referred for cancer treatment will be seen in two months, reinforcing his party’s focus on the NHS before the general election.
In what was arguably the sole big policy announcement of the gathering in Bournemouth, Davey called for cross-party consensus over a proposed five-year plan to improve cancer survival rates.
Under a policy that Lib Dem officials say would cost £4bn over the five years, the current 62-day target for patients in England to begin treatment after an urgent referral, would be made into law.
The health secretary would be held accountable for a failure to meet the standard, first of all via the health service ombudsman, and then potentially through the courts. Currently 40% of people wait longer.
In a highly personal section of his speech, Davey recounted the death of both his parents from cancer – his father when he was four; his mother when he was 15 – and argued that while survival rates had improved greatly, the UK still lagged behind comparable countries.
“My family’s story isn’t unique. There are millions of us whose lives get turned upside down by cancer,” the Lib Dem leader said. “I fervently hope we can build a consensus across politics to make cancer a top priority in the next parliament.”
Other elements of the plan would include easier access to radiotherapy and a so-called cancer survival research act, based on a US example, giving funding for research into cancers with the lowest survival rates.
While the Lib Dems plan to fight the election campaign on a model of highly targeted local messaging in target seats, the NHS is described by party officials as “the golden thread”, a common message aimed at winning over Conservative voters.
Elsewhere in his speech, Davey reiterated his attacks on recent Tory prime ministers, beginning by recalling how after July’s byelection win in Somerton and Frome he had posed with a mock circus cannon and compared the Conservatives to clowns.
Davey went on: “A party member got in touch afterwards, to say he is an actual clown, and he took great offence at being compared to this Conservative government. On reflection, I have to admit, he’s got a point.
“So let me take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to that party member, and to the whole clowning community.”
Castigating what he termed “the corruption of Boris Johnson, the chaos of Liz Truss, the carelessness of Rishi Sunak”, Davey argued that recent years had damaged faith in the entire political system.
“So much sleaze. So many scandals. No wonder people are cynical,” he said. “The toxic brew of incompetence, scandal and chaos served up by this government has poisoned not only people’s view of the Conservatives, but their trust in politics as a whole.”
Targeting Labour, Davey said Keir Starmer’s party had opted to “give up on really changing things”, describing their approach as: “Make your pitch nothing more than: ‘Not as bad as the Tories.’
“Half-heartedly oppose what the Conservatives are doing, and then shrug your shoulders and say: ‘We’d pretty much do the same thing.’”
In other policy areas, Davey lambasted Sunak’s “disgraceful” watering down of net zero policies, calling it “a dismal failure of leadership”.
Brexit did not get a direct mention, with Davey talking instead more broadly – and briefly – of improving the trade deal with the EU – with an even briefer mention of another Lib Dem favourite, electoral reform.
