Conference a joyful victory rally for Lib Dems – but what happens next?
The Liberal Democrats leader gave his speech to the party’s annual conference in Brighton, and, with a chorus of ABBA mixed in, it was a gleeful end to the gathering.
Sir Ed Davey started his speech by describing his party’s conference as joyful – and that is exactly how it felt.
But the question for them at the very heart of this conference is simply – what now?
The Liberal Democrats had their best ever general election this July. They are still revelling in their nearly five-year recovery from a humiliating 2019 election where they went down to just 12 seats.
They can’t stop telling everyone about their new stronghold of 72 MPs and how that means they are a much stronger force in politics, but they’re also honest about not knowing quite what to do with that.
Their shiny new MPs have been told to focus on three main topics that worked well in the election: social care, the NHS and sewage. But out of the three, the NHS was really the focus of this conference.
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Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader and spokesperson on health and social care, spoke about her battle with Crohn’s disease and how she was initially given four days to live, then later told she would recover but never be able to work again.
She used that personal experience to say how the NHS “gave me my life back” and stressed that “health is about individual freedom”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed has now used his speech to talk about making the NHS “winterproof” to put an end to the annual winter crises in the health service with a new taskforce.
The party is also calling for more funding to the NHS in the Budget for increasing the number of GPs, dentists and repairing hospital buildings.
He also touched on his personal life, talking about caring for his mother before she died, and he spoke movingly about his disabled son.
Sir Ed said: “No one will hold him the way we hold him. No one will love him the way we love him. I guess it’s anxiety for all parents – what happens when you’re gone? It’s so intense when your child will be vulnerable all their life.”
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For a party who are known for their stunts, the Liberal Democrats know how to communicate a message and it seems their first strategy is to focus singularly on the NHS.
But with a government that is seemingly undeterred by rebels in its own party – the Liberal Democrats might have to give Labour a bigger reason to wake up and take note.
