Ed Davey and his party are preparing to do battle with Reform as they gather for their annual conference
Lib Dems the last block against ‘forces of darkness’, says Davey
With memories still fresh of 2019, when pre-election predictions of 200-plus seats were followed by a haul of precisely 11, the first rule of Liberal Democrat conference is that you never talk about numbers. Nonetheless, one thing is abundantly clear: this is a party thinking big.
That might sound anomalous when we are perhaps three years from an election and the Lib Dems already have 72 MPs, the biggest contingent in a century. But in a political era almost unparalleled in flux, there is an argument they are responding to the chaos as effectively as anyone.
At the gathering in Bournemouth, MPs and officials were as good as unanimous on two fronts: first, that Ed Davey’s party increasingly faces a head-to-head fight with Reform; and second, that this unlikely and emerging battle could provide the party with an unprecedented electoral opportunity.
