The Lib Dems are learning lessons from 2019

Sir Ed Davey has just finished his speech at the end of a broadly successful four-day conference for the Liberal Democrats in sunny Bournemouth. The venue for Davey’s speech could not have been more apt: the International Centre, scene of Margaret Thatcher’s final conference address in 1990. The once true-blue Tory shires that voted for the Iron Lady in droves are now firmly in Davey’s sights and the speech he delivered this afternoon was laser-focused at them. Virtually all of his attacks were directed at the Tories: the word ‘Conservative’ featured 27 times in Davey’s address, compared to just three mentions for Labour and one for the SNP. Indeed, given the ongoing war of words over the Mid-Beds by-election, the lack of any real criticism of Labour was striking.

The broad theme of Davey’s speech was failings in the public services, for which he placed the blame squarely at Rishi Sunak’s door.