Sir Ed Davey rallied his Liberal Democrat army today to “finish the job” in crushing the Tory Party.
Ahead of the Lib-Dem annual rally in Brighton, he set his sights on his party doing even better than its historic 72-seats General Election result in July when it tore into the previously Conservative “Blue Wall” in southern England.
The Lib-Dems seized Surrey Heath, Esher and Walton, Epsom and Ewell, Wimbledon, Witney, Henley and Thame, Tunbridge Wells, Maidenhead, Wokingham, Mid Sussex, Harpenden and Berkhamsted, North East Hampshire, and Chichester in the strongest Liberal performance since 1923.
“We made a massive demolition job on the Blue Wall,” Sir Ed told The Standard.
“But there is more to go.
“If we can show in seats that we have won that...you elect a Liberal Democrat you elect a great local champion, and you can point to loads more in all the Home Counties and beyond, then we can do a lot more.
“There is no doubt that we could finish the job with the Conservatives.”
With some Tories advocating that the party needs to swing to the Right to take on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Sir Ed argued that Lib-Dem “values are much more in tune with lots of lifelong Conservative voters”.
After their election drubbing, the Tories have been left with just 121 MPs, and are divided over to what extent and how it should seek to fight on the Centre ground.
“The Conservative Party looks in disarray,” said the Lib-Dem leader, who shies away from saying his party could win 100 seats or overtake the Tories.
But he stressed: “There is a lot more Conservative seats that we could take,” before quickly adding that his party would “keep working” also on winning some more from Labour, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.
The Lib-Dems themselves suffered a devastating defeat in 2015, losing 49 seats to end with just eight after their U-turn over university tuition fees and going into coalition with the Tories.
A series of by-elections and local council victories in the last Parliament showed they were winning back the trust of voters, said Sir Ed, MP for Kingston and Surbiton.
“We have got to continue the campaign to keep that trust and if we do we will hold loads of those (72) seats, maybe all of them,” he added.
Key to this strategy is focusing on the issues which the party campaigned on for the general election, with the NHS and care set to run “all the way through our conference” given the scale of the crisis in the health service and how important it is to so many people.
During the general election campaign, Sir Ed and his wife Emily spoke about caring for their teenage son John, 16, who has severe learning and physical disabilities.
He stressed that he wants the Lib-Dems to continue being a “voice” for millions of carers around the country, many of who have less financial or family support.
Given the scale of the Lib-Dem wins on July 5, the party conference is expected to be a jubilant gathering.
But while thanking delegates, activists and MPs, Sir Ed is due to stress: “With this success comes huge responsibility.
“Yes it’s about thanking, and celebrating but it’s also about saying we are going to plan for the future...we have now got a serious job to do.
“We need to show people in the seats that we have won and beyond that we are a better Opposition than the Conservatives.”
He argued that the Lib-Dems were already doing this in the “tone and way” it was opposing the Government, by offering solutions rather than just criticism, including by reversing tax cuts on the banks over a decade to raise some £4 billion, according to his party’s calculations, to fund keeping winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Lib-Dem conference sets party policy and motions include giving town halls new powers over Sunday trading for shops.
“We tend to be a party that believes that things like that are better decided locally,” said Sir Ed.
As for whether a floated ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2045 is liberal, he added: “Driving electric vehicles will be much cheaper, we have got to get to a point where it happens naturally.”
