Ed Davey claps and sings ABBA in horrifying Lib Dem Conference cringe second
Ed Davey bobbed around on stage, clapping and singing ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” in the year’s most horrifying moment of conference cringe.
Not satisfied with taking dozens of seats from the Tories in the General Election, the Lib Dem leader set his sights on Theresa May ’s longstanding title of ‘most embarrassing ABBA related conference speech walk-on’.
The former Tory PM made headlines around the world by doing a little shimmy to the Swedish hitmakers’ “Dancing Queen” at the Conservatives’ Conference in 2018.
But Mr Davey’s intro was rendered even more excruciating by the singing. Oh my word the singing.
In the room, the song was blasting out through the sound system, creating something of a party atmosphere in the Brighton conference centre – just a five minute walk from the hall where ABBA made their Eurovision debut in 1974.
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PA)
But the live TV footage only carried the sound from Sir Ed’s microphone – meaning only his apparently acapella rendition of the 1977 Number 1 was beamed to dozens of viewers across the country.
Sir Ed, a knight of the realm, has made a name for himself with a string of headline-grabbing stunts on the campaign trail, culminating in his arrival at this weekend’s conference on the back of a jetski.
As he kicked his speech off, he joked that his team wanted him to deliver it wearing a wetsuit, as if that could possibly have made the moment more cringeworthy.
“We’re having a party!” he enthused to party faithful as he launched into the speech.
“It’s been joyful, hasn’t it? Getting together to celebrate, and to start planning the future – having fun, but with a serious focus.
“It reminds me of our election campaign. Do you know they wanted me to wear a wetsuit today? But I said it was abseiling or nothing, so here we are, having a party after winning our largest number of MPs for over 100 years.”
If he follows Theresa May’s career trajectory, Sir Ed will spend next year’s speech croaking through a lost voice, while Sarah Olney tries to give him a Hall’s Soother.
