Bread Davey! Lib Dem chief dons chef’s hat at school baking lesson

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey today donned a chef’s hat during a school baking lesson for his latest in a series of fun general election campaign gimmicks.

It comes after he yesterday hurtled down a giant slip ‘n slide, clowned around on a bike on Wednesday and threw himself off a paddleboard into Lake Windermere on Tuesday.

A BBC journalist on the Liberal Democrat‘s ‘battle bus’ revealed that Sir Ed believes politicians can take people’s issues seriously without taking themselves seriously.

The campaigning politician channeled his inner Mary Berry as he made cake with the pupils of High Beeches Primary School in Harpenden, Hertfordshire during a half-term holiday camp.

Sir Ed used today’s stunt to promote the Liberal Democrats’ new pledge to provide free school meals to all primary school children, in a manifesto commitment they said would be funded by a tax on share buybacks.

The party said it would start by immediately extending the scheme to provide school meals to all 900,000 children living in poverty who currently miss out. 

Under the plan, all primary school children would be able to get free school meals once public finances stabilise.

As the airtime each party gets is worked out by looking at previous electoral success and current polling, the Lib Dems hope that if their leader does something wacky, voters will take the time to check their policies.

That is why Sir Ed Davey took to the kitchen in Harpenden. 

He said their plan is ‘the most ambitious plan for free school meals of any party’.

He said: ‘Across the country, I hear heartbreaking stories of children going to school with empty packed lunch boxes as parents struggle to cover even the basic costs.

‘Conservative MPs should hang their heads in shame at a legacy of children going hungry in the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

‘Children cannot be expected to learn on empty stomachs with no guarantee of a hot meal when they get home.

‘It is time for change and a government which cares about the wellbeing of children and their futures.’

Children in reception, year 1 and year 2 can all already get free school meals. But from year 3 and above, eligibility depends on family income.

Ed Miliband deployed a similar attention grabbing tactic today by posting a picture of himself with a hen party on a train.

His caption reads: ‘Great British HENergy.’

The Lib Dems said its free school meal pledge would be funded by a four per cent levy on the share buybacks of FTSE 100 listed corporations, similar to the excise tax on buybacks implemented by President Joe Biden in the US.

This could raise around £1.4billion a year, according to the Liberal Democrats.

A share buyback is when a company buys back its own shares from the market. This reduces the number of shares on the market and increases the value of remaining shares.

The Lib Dems said that these transactions are mainly carried out by oil and gas giants, banks and large corporations that own a number of food and consumer goods brands.

Sir Davey – known for his love of attention-grabbing antics – clambered to the top of the ‘ultimate’ slip and slide in Frome, Somerset at around 10am yesterday to promote their new child mental health policy.

Donning a grey rash vest and a pair of trunks, he climbed into a rubber ring at the summit of a 300ft tall yellow and green water slide, before hurtling himself down at great speed.

The party said yesterday they would treble taxes for search engine and social media firms and use the money to employ mental health care professionals in schools as children in need are being being ‘left in limbo’.

It was just one in a lengthy series of set-up stunts that have included Ed Davey being seen with his legs spread wide open on Wednesday as he rode a bike during a visit to Knighton in Wales while on the campaign trail.

And that came after he repeatedly and deliberately fell from a paddleboard at Lake Windermere on Tuesday, the scene of a highly controversial effluent spillage in February.

Earlier this month it was claimed million of litres of raw sewage were ‘illegally pumped’ into the Lake District beauty spot by United Utilities after a fault was not corrected for hours.

Sir Ed accused Tory ministers of ‘sitting on their hands’ and allowing firms to get away with pumping poo into waterways.

Last week, Sir Davey could be seen lapping up a yellow ice cream on a seaside trip for the second day of the election campaign 

The Liberal Democrat leader made, and then ate, the frozen treat as he teamed up with local candidate Josh Babarinde and party supporters in the East Sussex town.

Eastbourne is among a string of ‘Blue Wall’ seats the Lib Dems are targeting on 4 July.

The party are prioritising areas where they came second to the Conservatives in 2019, portraying themselves as opposition to the government.

They are trying to win in places like Cheadle and Cheltenham, Wimbledon and Winchester.