Why aren’t the Lib Dems doing better?

This weekend, the Liberal Democrats announced that they are mounting a ‘blue wall’ offensive, a campaign aimed at affluent voters in Tory-held seats located in the south of England. The theme of this campaign will be the Tories’ handling of the NHS, which the Lib Dems have done local polling on and discovered might be a vote winner in these areas. ‘Might be’ is key here because if you look at nationwide polling, you have to wonder how many seats the Lib Dems are actually capable of winning, even if the Conservatives do fall apart before the next general election.

Rishi Sunak hasn’t turned the polls around for the Tories – at least, not yet. The Prime Minister’s party appears to be stuck somewhere in the mid-20s, with Labour polling in the high-40s, even cracking 50 per cent on occasion. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat numbers stubbornly refuse to budge from their miserly position.