"It's time to get the Conservatives out of Number 10"
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has delivered his closing speech to the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth. In his remarks, which were met with a standing ovation from party members, Davey laid into the Tory government and set his sights on the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ of Tory seats in the south of England.
Davey told the conference: “It’s time to get the Conservatives out of Number 10”. He went on to say that “the next election won’t be all about the Red Wall, it’s also about the Blue Wall”, later claiming that the Lib Dems are “the only ones who can win” in the latter.
He told the conference that the Liberal Democrats have “the policies, the passion and the people’ to unseat the Tories and deliver the “fair deal people deserve”.
Davey used his speech to level extensive criticism at the Tories for their record in government. “The corruption of Boris Johnson, the chaos of Liz Truss and the carelessness of Rishi Sunak – this whole Conservative shambles – they all have to go”, he said the conference’s main hall. He accused the Tories of having “broken promise after promise on the NHS”, and said that cancer patients have been “let down and forgotten by this Conservative government”.
Notably, Davey’s speech stuck almost relentlessly to criticising the government, with the other major party – Labour – barely getting a mention. Davey only acknowledged Keir Starmer’s party twice – first to criticise its position on Europe, and secondly to accuse them of promising the British public to only be “not as bad as the Tories”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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