Lib Dem leader Ed Davey delivers leader’s conference speech
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has walked on to the stage at his party conference to applause from members that have gathered over the past three days in Bournemouth.
He begins by recognising the “lively debates” that have been had at the event and immediately mocks Reform UK for inviting controversial doctor Aseem Malhotra to speak at their conference earlier this month.
He says:
Lots of lively debates on so many important topics.
And somehow we’ve managed to get through it all without bringing someone up onto the stage to argue that it was Covid vaccines that caused cancer in the Royal Family.
See, Nigel? It can be done.
He praises the party’s 72 MPs and is now reeling off Lib Dem achievements in this parliament so far.
Davey says:
But look at the job our new team is doing in parliament too. Look at the big changes we have won in the last year alone.
Stronger protections for survivors of domestic abuse. Better support for family carers. A Sunshine Bill to put solar panels on every new home.
Making sure every child living in poverty gets a healthy lunch at school for free. So much progress and none of it happens without Liberal Democrats in parliament.
An amazing record of achievement already and we’re planning much more.
He reels off local election successes in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Shropshire before declaring “the best is yet to come.”
Key events
The Lib Dem leader is now pitching his party to moderate Conservatives and addresses ‘One Nation’ Tories directly.
He says he has lost count of the number of voters who say the voted Tory all their lives but have now switched to the Liberal Democrats.
Davey says:
My message to millions of former Conservative voters, millions of One Nation conservatives who reject the divisive politics of Badenoch and Farage, my message to you is this:
Come and talk to us. About our ideas to grow the economy. Cut crime. Defend our nation.
Come and join us. To oppose this failing Labour government and offer our great country real change.
Come, Conservative friends. Help us save our country. Come and win with us.
He jokes that he is letting the members in the hall into another “secret” and says that the Lib Dems will be targeting Labour seats too.
He says:
I said before the election, that just getting the Conservatives out of power wouldn’t be enough.
We were all worried, weren’t we? That Labour wouldn’t be nearly ambitious enough to make the big changes our country needs.
I really hoped Labour would prove us wrong. But they haven’t. They’ve no vision for our country’s future. No plan to really change things.
Conference, don’t just take it from me. That’s what Labour MPs and Labour members are saying about their own government. After being failed and neglected for so long, the country needed leadership. Clarity. Vision.
It needed the government to succeed. To turn things around. To just be better.
Instead, they’ve lurched from mistake to mistake. From U-turn to U-turn. Crisis to crisis.
Davey: Lib Dems aiming to win more seats than Tories at next election
Davey is now speaking about the “threat that Reform UK poses” to the country and says only the Lib Dems are representing Britain’s “decent, silent majority”.
He says his party’s “secret first target” for the next election is to win more seats than the Conservatives.
He says:
Our first target is to win more seats than the Conservatives, for the first time since Herbert Henry Asquith in 1910.
Now we have even more ambitious targets than that – but let’s start with the Tories.
For when it comes to the Conservative party – you might have thought the scale of their defeat would have forced a bit of… introspection? Maybe they’d… apologise? Show a hint of contrition. Self-awareness? But no.
Tory ministers who cheered Liz Truss’s budget now complain about the state of the economy they left.
Tory ministers who stopped processing asylum claims and caused the enormous backlog – now make videos complaining about it and protesting outside the asylum hotels they opened.
The Conservative party today is like a herd of bulls; going back into the china shop with a camera crew, pointing at all the broken china everywhere. And decrying the state of china shops in “woke, liberal” Britain.
The Conservative party: no shame. No remorse. No wonder the country is saying “no thanks.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey delivers leader’s conference speech
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has walked on to the stage at his party conference to applause from members that have gathered over the past three days in Bournemouth.
He begins by recognising the “lively debates” that have been had at the event and immediately mocks Reform UK for inviting controversial doctor Aseem Malhotra to speak at their conference earlier this month.
He says:
Lots of lively debates on so many important topics.
And somehow we’ve managed to get through it all without bringing someone up onto the stage to argue that it was Covid vaccines that caused cancer in the Royal Family.
See, Nigel? It can be done.
He praises the party’s 72 MPs and is now reeling off Lib Dem achievements in this parliament so far.
Davey says:
But look at the job our new team is doing in parliament too. Look at the big changes we have won in the last year alone.
Stronger protections for survivors of domestic abuse. Better support for family carers. A Sunshine Bill to put solar panels on every new home.
Making sure every child living in poverty gets a healthy lunch at school for free. So much progress and none of it happens without Liberal Democrats in parliament.
An amazing record of achievement already and we’re planning much more.
He reels off local election successes in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Shropshire before declaring “the best is yet to come.”
Ed Davey to deliver keynote speech at Lib Dem conference
Good afternoon. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the top news lines to emerge from Ed Davey’s leader speech at the Liberal Democrat conference this afternoon.
We are expecting him to get underway in approximately five to 10 minutes, so do stay with us for that.
Davey has been vocal about the need to push back against the rise of far-right politics and has offered stark opposition in recent weeks to figures such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and US president Donald Trump.
We can expect him to touch upon that in this keynote speech, as well as covering typical Lib Dem talking points such as social care, the cost of living and Britain’s relationship with Europe.
Stay tuned.
Andrew Sparrow
Rachel Millward, the Green party’s co-deputy leader, has also condemned Donald Trump for his autism comments. She said:
Donald Trump’s America seems to be witnessing the unfolding of the terrifying fiction, the Handmaid’s Tale.
Trump has suggested women in pain during pregnancy should avoid using paracetamol based on a bogus and fear-mongering claim that using it will lead to autism in their children.
The Trump administration has also ordered a review of all grants for research involving what they decry as ‘woke’ keywords – which includes the word ‘women’.
We should all feel worried by this blatant misogyny, because where Donald Trump leads, Nigel Farage tends to follow.
Tom Ambrose is taking over the blog now. I will be back later this afternoon.
British officials fear Donald Trump could recognise Israeli control over illegal settlements on the West Bank in retaliation for the UK, France and others deciding to recognise Palestine, Kiran Stacey, Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth report.
Lib Dems can’t win many more seats from ‘more of the same’ strategy, says John Curtice
Here is a fuller version of the quote from Sir John Curtice, the leading elections expert, on the strategic dilemma facing the Liberal Democrats. (See 12.53pm.) The World at One played this clip. Curtice said:
The truth is that the immediate opportunities for the Liberal Democrats to gain further seats, either during the course of this parliament, or indeed in 2029, do look rather limited.
Now it’s true Ed Davey’s strategy of focusing on the blue wall – that is Conservative-held seats from 2019 – was very successful in the general election in 2024.
However, virtually all of the possible gains that could be acquired from that strategy have been made. There are only 20 seats left where the Liberal Democrats are now second to the Conservatives.
The other problem they have is that they are there only six seats where they are second to Labour, and one in Wales where they are second to Plaid Cymru.
So the problem the Liberal Democrats have to have is, yes they’ve now got all of these bastions very focused in the south of England, but I think the fundamental question they now face is where do they go from here?
And it’s not clear that the answer to that is to do more of the same.
They now, it seems to me, need to broaden their geographical base beyond what they achieved in 2024 if indeed they are ever going to return to being a party that is actually gaining votes widely across the country, as opposed to a party that at the moment looks very heavily focused on one particular region of England.
At the Lib Dem conference members passed three more motions before lunch: on the space industry, on Sudan, and on global women’s rights.
On space, they are calling for a renewal of the government’s space strategy, with “the central focus of incentivising international investment, fostering industry growth, and people–centred, efficient regulation”.
On Sudan, they are saying the government should act at the UN security council “to advance all diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and an agreement on safe zones for civilians”.
And, on women’s rights, they are saying the government should “develop a roadmap to restore UK aid spending at 0.7% of GNI [gross national income], targeting at least 20% of UK aid on striving for gender equality”.
UK medicines regulator says there is ‘no evidence’ to back Trump’s claim about paracetamol and autism
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a statement saying there is “no evidence” to support President Trump’s claim that taking paracetamol during pregnancy can cause autism in children.
Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the MHRA, said:
Patient safety is our top priority. There is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.
Paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed. Pregnant women should continue to follow existing NHS guidance and speak to their healthcare professional if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy. Untreated pain and fever can pose risks to the unborn baby, so it is important to manage these symptoms with the recommended treatment.
Our advice on medicines in pregnancy is based on rigorous assessment of the best available scientific evidence. Any new evidence that could affect our recommendations would be carefully evaluated by our independent scientific experts.
According to a report by Max Kendix in the Times, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will be writing to than two million people who voted Conservative last year urging them to join his party instead.
But Kendix says Sir John Curtice, the leading psephologist, has argued that targeting Tory voters would be a mistake for the Lib Dems because they might do better focusing on disenchanted Labour supporters instead. Curtice said:
You do not have to win votes from your principal opponent in order to defeat them. The Lib Dems picked up quite a lot of tactical support at the general election because people were so desperate to get rid of the Tories that they were willing to switch from Labour and the Greens. The one thing the Lib Dems were not particularly reliant on was winning votes from the Tories.
At the weekend More in Common UK, the campaign group that works to make society more united and inclusive, published a report based on polling looking at support for the Lib Dems, and the options they have.
More in Common identified three potential ways forward for Davey’s party.
In his speech this afternoon Davey is also expected to argue that his party is better placed than Labour or the Tories to offer voters a change – and better placed than Reform UK to offer a change that would benefit the country. He has been making this argument in interviews.
But More in Common also found that 55% of people want “fast, radical change” – and only 11% of people think that is what the Lib Dems are offering.
Trump’s comments offensive to women and reveal ‘blatant prejudice towards autism’, says Alliance MP
Sorcha Eastwood, the Alliance MP from Northern Ireland, says President Trump’s comments were not just completely wrong; they were offensive to women, and to people with autism.
The statement from President Trump about Paracetemol and autism is completely unfounded.
Not just that, but it is wrapped in blame towards women and shaming women. I’m sure Trump has never been pregnant or tried to prepare his body for pregnancy and it’s already a highly stressful time when you query every single thing you put in your body.
To hear from the most powerful Office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women. To hear that if you take paracetamol during pregnancy that you will give your child autism is completely unfounded and untrue.
Further, the language and attitude displayed by Trump and RFK his Health Secretary is showing their blatant prejudice towards autism.
People with autism do not need cured, and folic acid is not the “cure”.
It was bad enough when Trump encouraged people to drink bleach and take horse wormer to fight covid, but this is on a different level.
Absolute nonsense and designed to create fear and shame in women and to send a signal that autism is a “disease “ to be “cured”. Utterly, utterly shameful.
