James Heale has narrated this article for you to listen to.
The English social season has begun, kicking off with Gold Cup day. But this year, there is a new common denominator in the seats of southern England where the middle classes congregate: Liberal Democrat MPs. From the Cheltenham Festival in March right the way through to Goodwood in September, it is Ed Davey’s party which represents the constituencies where Britain’s bourgeoisie are most comfortable. Whether it is the Boat Race in April (Richmond) or the Derby in June (Epsom and Ewell), or even Wimbledon and Henley in July, everywhere Pimm’s is served, a Lib Dem is the local MP. They dominate the Boden Belt. And even Tories despair that the Lib Dems are the real ‘party of the posh’.
At this week’s spring conference, the party was in an optimistic mood. They were thoroughly at home in the genteel, Remain-voting spa town of Harrogate, a typical Lib Dem seat save for its Yorkshire location. In England the party only holds six seats north of the Midlands – but they tend to be places where the lattes come with oat milk. ‘The rest have Gail’s, we have Betty’s,’ jokes a northern Lib Dem. Of the party’s 59 gains in England last July, 44 came in either the south-east (23) or south-west (21). A WhatsApp chat called ‘Surrey Massive’ has become one of the noisier Lib Dem forums.
Like dogs and their owners, most of Davey’s new MPs look like the seats they now represent. The party’s careful selection process meant candidates in target seats were chosen two years before polling day.
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