Lib Dem leader says he is proud of party’s record at Brighton conference Good morning. Ed Davey became Lib Dem leader in 2020, which means he is technically the longest-serving leader of a national party in the UK. (“Technically” because, while Nigel Farage only became leader of Reform UK in his current incumbency in 2024, he had led it before when it was called the Brexit party and, if you include Ukip, he has been leader of the anti-migrant, anti-EU right in British politics for more than 20 years.) After six years in charge, it is inevitable that some Lib Dems are starting to complain and, with the Lib Dem conference taking place in Brighton, Davey has been giving interviews this morning where he has had to respond to complaints from his critics.The most vocal has been Julian Brazil, the leader of Devon county council, who told the BBC yesterday that the Lib Dems were “sleepwalking into irrelevance” with Davey at the helm.We’ve grown really fast in recent years under my leadership. Record number of MPs. We’re running more councils than the Conservatives – councils up and down the country.[I’m] really proud of that record and it means when you have a bigger party, you can’t please everyone all the time.I would say to the Devon councillor, we’ve now got six Liberal Democrat MPs in Devon.
That’s not happened since the 1920s.We have a huge number of councillors across Devon and are leading the way in Devon, and I could go around the rest of the country. Continue reading…
