Lib Dem leader says his party hasn’t had its chips

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey served up lunch on the Palace Pier and said that his party hadn’t had its chips.

As the Lib Dems’ party conference gets under in way in Brighton, Sir Ed said that one of his fellow MPs was wrong to say that it was “struggling for relevance”.

In fact, he said, he was leading “the most united” party in British politics although he could understand why MPs became frustrated once they started to realise the limits of what they could achieve.

Sir Ed was responding to a remark made by Roz Savage, the MP for South Cotswolds, in an essay in which she wrote that the party had to rediscover its “insurgent spirit” rather than being the “polite custodians of a system that leaves people feeling powerless”.

Sir Ed donned a chef’s coat to serve up fish and chips to customers on the Palace Pier as he marked his arrival in Brighton for the annual autumn conference.

He said: “I heard Roz (Savage) – and I really value her – but I think she’s wrong on that.

“If you look at our election results up and down the country, we now run more councils than the Conservatives.”

He added: “Actually, I sense we’re the most united party in British politics and that’s the impression I get going round talking to members here.

“Listen, MPs get elected and they get frustrated because they can’t change the world.

“I’m afraid that’s the political system. I’ve been used to it for a little while and people are learning about that frustration.

“But we want to change that political system. It’s holding everyone back, particularly holding our country back.”

He pointed to the £72 million donated to Reform UK recently by crypto billionaires and to foreign influence from Elon Musk as examples of features of the system that should be stopped.

Sir Ed has sought to boost his party’s profile with attention-grabbing stunts and ramped them up before the last general election in which the Lib Dems returned a record number of MPs.

But it has struggled to maintain a strong presence as Reform and the Greens have often managed to generate more headlines.

The party was described as “weak” in new YouGov polling by just more than half of those asked.

And while the survey signalled that the public largely sees the Lib Dems as moderate, 43 per cent said that it was unclear what they stood for.

YouGov said that the Lib Dems had trailed other parties in voting intention polls for most of the past year and had seen “no real growth in support since the last general election”.

The party is seeking to firm up a platform for the next general election, with health and the economy at the centre at the four-day conference in Brighton.

Sir Ed said that his party would not be caught on the back foot by a snap election if Prime Minister Andy Burnham called one to try to consolidate his position.

He said that the party had already set up its manifesto working group, with Cheadle MP Tom Morrison as the chairman.

Sir Ed said: “So, we’ll be ready if it comes early. But, you know, it still could be up to three years away. So, potentially a lot of work to do.”

He said that his party had a “distinctive position” in the nation’s politics. Their goals included taking Britain back into the European Union’s single market and customs union.

They believe that such steps were key to achieving economy growth and bringing down taxes. The party also has a focus on the NHS.

The Lib Dems are trying to position themselves to take on Reform as well as their more traditional rivals, the Conservatives, and Sir Ed plans to pitch his party as “willing to fight” at a rally today Saturday (19 September).

He is expected to say that Reform hopes that the Lib Dems will give up out of tiredness or depression but that a “bigger orange wall” is needed to stop Nigel Farage’s path to Downing Street.