Ed Davey’s game plan

Ed Davey owes much of his election success to Boris Johnson – and in more ways than one. The slide-loving, bungee-jumping, paddleboard-slipping Lib Dem leader has, like Johnson on his zipwire, learned how to capture media attention while evading being placed on a conventional political axis. One day he’s intoning soulfully on social care in the Commons; the next rocking up to party conference on a jet ski. He wants inheritance tax hiked but decries Labour’s plans for VAT on school fees. Such shenanigans enabled him in the election to appear both serious and silly, left and right, using any publicity to deliver ruthlessly crafted messages on health, sewage and the cost-of-living crisis.

The strategy paid off handsomely and 72 Lib Dem MPs were elected in July. There was a mood of euphoria at the conference in Brighton this week, as activists celebrated the party’s best result since the days of Asquith and Lloyd George. A record 61 gains will enable Davey to draw from a bigger talent pool for his upcoming reshuffle. Ex-councillors Josh Babarinde and Max Wilkinson impressed the conference on various panels. Academics such as Al Pinkerton and Mike Martin offer useful foreign expertise in parliament and the media – a role played a generation earlier by Ming Campbell. After a decade of being overstretched, frontbenchers can share the burden better in their mission to make further gains in the Blue Wall. In private, some Tories admit to admiring the quality of the intake – despite the fact that Davey’s MPs are strongly anti-Conservative (one newbie even boasts a tattoo of the Lib Dem bird on her back).

The Lib Dems are eyeing future gains in the 20 constituencies where they finished second to the Tories.