Sir Ed Davey to say Lib Dems will offer people hope – and will accuse Tories of being ‘unfit for opposition’
The Lib Dem leader will finish the party’s conference with a speech on hope – but he will lay into Labour and the Tories.
Sir Ed Davey is to say his party will offer people hope and will accuse the Conservatives of being “unfit for opposition”.
In his keynote speech to close the Liberal Democrats’ conference in Brighton on Tuesday, Sir Ed will say millions of voters “put their trust in us” after the party won 72 seats in the general election.
He is expected to say voters’ trust “is our mandate” and the party must be “true to that mandate and repay that trust in full”.
Ahead of his speech, he took to a tennis court in Brighton with three of his MPs in a “warm up” before the event on Tuesday afternoon.
The Lib Dem leader will promise to focus on their priorities of “getting our economy back on track and getting the cost of living under control” and ending “the sewage scandal and protecting our precious environment”.
But their number one priority, he will say, is about “fixing the NHS and care crisis – a clear message of hope”.
He will accuse the Labour government of “pessimism and defeatism” and promise to “cut through the government’s doom and gloom with our ambition for our country”.
The Conservatives will get a fair few mentions after the Lib Dems took many of their seats, including from four cabinet ministers and in constituencies once held by former prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Sir Ed will say the Tories showed themselves “to be totally unfit to govern our country…now they are already showing they are unfit for opposition too”.
“Expecting that lot to hold the government to account on the NHS or the economy would be like putting a bull in charge of repairing the china shop,” he will say.
“The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of their former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people that it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics.
“On 4 July we made a great start, but now let’s go further. Let’s finish the job.”
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Sir Ed will also accuse the Conservatives of “scraping the bottom of the barrel” with the four remaining Tory leadership candidates.
They are Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.
The Lib Dem conference started on Saturday, with “72 MPs” being the most spoken phrase over the four days, as they celebrated their historic win.
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Sir Ed has continued the stunts he became known for during the election campaign, entering the conference on a jet ski, playing beach volleyball and building a stile while drinking a local sparkling wine.
Some of his MPs also took to a roller coaster and went kayaking as the sun shone down on Brighton.
