Davey says ‘no ceiling’ on how many MPs Lib Dems want to gain
The Lib Dems returned a record 72 MPs at the last general election, but has since struggled to capture the same level of attention as other parties.
The party is seeking to firm up a platform for the next general election at its four-day conference.
But new research concluded the party has a “fundamental challenge of cut through”.
Despite having nine times as many MPs as Reform, four times more members of the UK public said they had heard from Nigel Farage’s party than Sir Ed’s, at 66% compared with 16%, and they were more than seven times more likely to have seen Mr Farage on social media than Sir Ed, according to More In Common.
Sir Ed conceded his party had not been “good enough” on social media and said they plan to make the team around four times bigger by the autumn, which he said he hopes will make a “major difference”.
Asked how many MPs he thinks his party could win next time around, Sir Ed told a question-and-answer session with members at the Lib Dem party conference: “There is no ceiling on our ambitions.”
But he suggested they could be targeting a further 57 seats where Lib Dems came second by less than 10,000 votes.
He did not rule out that he could agree to his party joining a potential coalition in future, saying “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself there”.
He has pitched Reform and the Conservatives as the party’s main rivals in the next election.
At a rally on the first night of the conference, Sir Ed took aim at Mr Farage and Elon Musk as he pledged the party would not give up its fight against “nasty populism”.
He told the Press Association he “100%” thought he had the charisma to take on leaders of rising parties like the Greens’ Zack Polanski and Mr Farage.
“Now I do my politics differently from them.
“It’s very easy to be exciting if you say things that are a bit crazy.
“You know, Donald Trump’s very exciting, and he’s damaging America and damaging the world.
“Nigel Farage is very exciting, but he wants to bring that Trump damage to our country, and we’re going to stop him.”
Party president Josh Babarinde said Sir Ed was “fired up to take the fight to the populists and the nationalists” and that “the gloves are off”.
More in Common director Luke Tryl said there were two risks for the party: that they may “become stuck as a party of only the most affluent areas” and that a perceived lack of momentum nationally will mean they are not viewed as a viable challenger in an election seen as a fight between a “revived Labour” and Reform UK.
This could undermine their ability to win tactical voters.
“Our polling shows that few have seen Davey on social media, heard from the Liberal Democrats, or know what they stand for,” he said.
Sir Ed also reconfirmed his commitment to the triple lock on pensions – though a show of hands in the conference hall indicated members are divided on the matter.
Earlier, the party had urged Andy Burnham to cut fuel duty by 10p a litre until at least Christmas to ease cost-of-living pressures.
The party also wants the planned 3p fuel duty rise due in January to be scrapped.
The party also wants to slash bus fares to £1, cut rail fares by 10% and make driving electric cars cheaper by cutting VAT on public charging and reviewing the network costs that push up charging prices.
Deputy leader Daisy Cooper set out plans to strike a growth and defence partnership with Europe that would see the UK join the single market, negotiate a new customs union and have a new defence pact.
“We want to join the single market and have a customs union, and we think we could get there within a year. If the government was serious about it, we could get there within a year,” she told reporters.
Ms Cooper said that was based on it having taken less than two years for Norway, and would not say if her party had spoken to EU contacts about that prospective timeline.
She said it was not clear what the associate EU membership offered to Canada entails but that “we want more”.