Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey (centre) arrives with Daisy Cooper (front left), Layla Moran (front right) and parliamentary candidates for the Liberal Democrat conference at the Bournemouth Conference Centre, September 26, 2023
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leader Ed Davey told his party today to target Tory voters at the next general election in the hope that it could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.
Speaking to the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth, he focused on challenging the government’s record on the NHS — drawing on family stories to emphasise failings in the treatment of cancer — and climate change.
Mr Davey has sought to make his party acceptable to voters who have previously backed the Tories by dropping proposals for a small tax increase and soft-pedalling its strong opposition to Brexit, although his pledge to “fix our broken relationship with Europe” won the loudest conference applause.
The Lib Dems aim to challenge the Conservatives in about 30 “blue wall” seats in the south and west of England, but the party has purportedly ruled out any coalition with Labour, which Mr Davey said had “given up on really changing things” and was only a “half-hearted opposition” to the government.
The Tories’ trouble is rooted in the British capitalist Establishment now being more disoriented and uncertain of its social mission than before, argues ANDREW MURRAY
JOE GILL looks at research on the reasons people voted as they did last week and concludes Labour is finished unless it ditches Starmer and changes course
