Ed Davey says Liberal Democrats will be ‘responsible opposition’ to Labour – as it happened

Sir Ed Davey delivers his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Brighton. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

5.41pm BST

Afternoon summary

• The government must “act faster and be much bolder” in tackling the crises facing the UK, Ed Davey has said in a speech to the Liberal Democrat conference, promising his party would be an antidote to the “pessimism and defeatism” of Keir Starmer.

• Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has vowed to take on the nimbys opposed to the government’s rollout of wind turbines, solar farms and pylons across the UK as a matter of “national security” and “economic justice”.

• David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has announced plans to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, in a major speech in which he also said the threat posed by the climate crisis was “more fundamental” than the threat posed by terrorism, or autocratic states. (See 1.35pm.)

• Angela Eagle, the border security minister, has struggled in interviews to defend the large number of “freebies” accepted by Keir Starmer before he became PM. (See 1.32pm.)

• Hollie Ridley, an ally of Keir Starmer, has been appointed Labour’s new general secretary.

Updated at 5.43pm BST

5.34pm BST

Where do the Lib Dems go next - analysis

Here is Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker’s analysis of where the Lib Dems go next after their party conference.

And here’s an extract.

As an election strategy, it was simple but hugely effective: combat the usual lack of attention for a smaller party with images of a wetsuit-clad or Zumba-dancing Davey, with each stunt linked the party’s core policy areas of the NHS and care, sewage, and the cost of living.

“In other elections, when we did get airtime we’d be asked about Labour or the Tories, or why we were so useless,” another party insider says. “This time we were asked about our policies.”

Going from 15 MPs to 72 was a dramatic vindication of the strategy, but as Davey closes a gleeful Lib Dem conference in Brighton, some in the party are wondering whether more of the same will work again.

One thing is clear: for now, the tight policy focus remains – as do the stunts. On Saturday, Davey arrived at Brighton marina on a jetski. Later in the conference he accepted a challenge to recite the names of all of his MPs while riding the rollercoaster on the city’s pier.

Some Lib Dems express private worry about this, wanting the party to focus also on areas that distinguish them from Labour, for example on Brexit and a suite of relatively radical tax policies in the election manifesto.

But, for now, Davey seems invulnerable, the beneficiary of an image revamp in which his team sought to highlight the empathy that comes with his role as a carer for his disabled teenage son, and his inherent sense of fun and mischief.