Lib Dem chief Ed Davey vow to complete off Tories in main speech

Sir Ed Davey will vow to finish off the Tories after his party’s record-breaking election result.

In a major speech at the Liberal Democrats ‘ annual conference in Brighton, Sir Ed will celebrate bringing his party back from the brink of extinction. At the General Election, the party scooped 72 seats, toppled Tory Cabinet ministers and overturned massive majorities in former Conservative heartlands.

But he will set out his aim in “finishing the job” of defeating Tory MPs. He will say: “On July 4 we made a great start, but now let’s go further. Let’s finish the job. The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of their former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people that it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics.”

Claiming the Tories are “unfit for opposition”, he will add: “When the country needs an opposition to scrutinise next month’s Budget, surely it’s not a job for the Tory geniuses who cheered Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to the rafters.”

The Lib Dem leader will also promise to “cut through” the new Labour government’s “doom and gloom” after Keir Starmer braced for a painful Budget next month. Sir Ed will say: “The challenges we face cannot be solved by burying our heads in the sand and pretending they don’t exist, like the Conservatives do. But nor can they be solved with the pessimism and defeatism we’re hearing from Labour.

“They will be solved the way Britain has always done in the past, by rising to our challenges with guts, determination, and hope.” Sir Ed’s celebratory speech comes after the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said on Monday her party was in “survival mode” when she was appointed in 2020.

Recalling a “sobering” conversation she had with Sir Ed Davey at the time, she told the party’s autumn conference: “Back in 2020 just after I became deputy leader, I remember one of my very first conversations with Ed, and it was quite sobering.

“He said to me Daisy, we both know we’ve only got 11 MPs, but when you add up our majorities, do you know how few votes stand between us and extinction? Our majorities add up to 69,664 votes. If we lose just half of those votes to the Tories, we will be wiped out.”

She added: “Until now, I haven’t shared that conversation with a single living soul. Why? Well because conference we didn’t want you, didn’t want anybody to know that we were in survival mode.”