Tag: Ed Davey

The speech made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, in the House of Commons on 7 November 2023.

May I, like others, start by paying tribute to His Majesty for delivering his first King’s Speech? It was clearly an historic moment, but for our King it must have been an emotional one. He made reference to his late mother, our late, amazing Queen, and many of us listening to him felt that he delivered that speech with grace and aplomb, and we are very grateful to him.

May I also pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Sir Robert Goodwill) and the hon. Member for Stroud (Siobhan Baillie) for their speeches? I have always rather admired the right hon. Gentleman, for many reasons. His speech today was extremely entertaining, but I have always liked the fact that he, like many on our Benches, opposed the third runway at Heathrow and that he was a constructive, if unfashionable, Conservative in his views on a constructive relationship with our European partners. But perhaps what makes him more at home with the current Government is his romantic enthusiasm for the steam engine, as we have heard: more noise than substance and going nowhere in the modern world.

My mother-in-law, an expert beekeeper and honey producer—and the swarm officer for North Dorset, no less—would join the seconder of today’s motion in congratulating Stroud on being the world’s first bee guardian town. I am sure that Stroud has a real buzz about it, but the House will be pleased to hear that I do not intend to drone on and on. Given your strictures at the beginning of this debate, Mr Speaker, I should like to clarify that I was not referring to any other Members in talking about droning on.

Today’s Gracious Speech is overshadowed by horrifying events around the world, with the monstrous terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel one month ago—more than 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered and hundreds were taken hostage, and they are in our thoughts today—and now the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Innocent Palestinians have been cut off from food, water and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed, and more than 10,000 have been killed.

We also have war on our continent, as the brave Ukrainian people continue to resist Vladimir Putin’s war machine. At times of global crisis such as this, the UK can be a force for good, when it stands tall in the world. But the British voice can be at its strongest only when we have a Government that are strong and united. I am afraid that that is sadly lacking now.

As the Gracious Speech shows, we do not even have a Government strong and united enough to take real action here on the challenges that people face at home. These are very tough times for the British people. They are working hard, showing remarkable decency and strength, but people are finding it harder and harder just to make ends meet. Instead of helping, what have this out-of-touch Conservative Government done in this King’s Speech and over the past few years? They have put up taxes, energy bills and mortgage payments. They have been adding to the pain, instead of soothing it.

Let us look just at energy, where today the Government could have brought forward plans to ensure Britain’s energy security and to bring down energy prices, with sustainable energy price cuts, for the long term. The Government could have announced plans to insulate homes to cut people’s energy bills and to invest properly in cheap, clean, renewable energy for the future. Instead, the Conservatives are choosing, once again, to shackle us to the expensive, dirty fossil fuels of the past.

Today’s Speech is yet more proof that this Government simply do not care. Just last week, the covid inquiry heard that during the pandemic the Government thought that older people should just “accept their fate”. That callous approach reveals an attitude that stretches far beyond the pandemic. By failing to address the cost of living crisis, the NHS and care crisis, the sewage crisis and many other crises like them, this King’s Speech, in essence, tells families and pensioners struggling to get by to “accept their fate”. This Government tell the pensioner, waiting weeks to see her GP, to accept her fate, and the cancer patient, waiting months just to start treatment, to accept his fate. They tell communities who are seeing their rivers polluted and their countryside destroyed to accept their fate. They tell the British people, fed up with being taken for granted by an out-of-touch Government, to accept their fate.

However, whatever this Government might want, the people of our great country—the British people—have never been ones to sit back quietly and accept their fate. They will not accept a Government who are so weak and divided that they cannot tackle the country’s challenges. They will not accept a Conservative party that is out of touch and out of ideas; they will kick it out of office. They will get that chance soon. No matter how long the Prime Minister delays it, an election is coming, so the British people do not have to accept the miserable fate of this tired Conservative Government. They can choose a better future and I believe they will.

The speech made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, in Bournemouth on 26 September 2023.

Thank you friends.

I’m afraid I have to start this afternoon with an apology.

You might remember –

After our incredible victory in Somerton and Frome in July –

When the amazing Sarah Dyke overturned a Conservative majority of nineteen thousand –

I said it’s time to get these clowns out of Number Ten.

We even wrote it on the side of a big blue cannon.

Do you remember?

Well, a party member got in touch afterwards, to say he is an actual clown. And he took great offence at being compared to this Conservative Government.

On reflection, I have to admit, he’s got a point.

Clowns didn’t crash our economy and send interest rates soaring.

Clowns didn’t let water companies make billions in profits while dumping filthy sewage into our rivers and onto our beaches.

Clowns didn’t plunge our NHS into crisis, pushing waiting lists to record highs.

Clowns didn’t waste billions of pounds – of our money – on dodgy PPE contracts.

Clowns didn’t prop up a lying, law-breaking Prime Minister – and then put his cronies in the House of Lords.

Clowns didn’t do it. The Conservatives did.

So let me take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to that party member, and to the whole clowning community.

I’m sorry. I used the wrong c-word.

Let me try again:

It’s time to get these Conservatives out of Number Ten!

And Liberal Democrats, we’ve made a great start.

Sarah Green in Buckinghamshire. Helen Morgan in Shropshire. Richard Foord in Devon. And now Sarah Dyke in Somerset.

And next up, of course, the wonderful Emma Holland-Lindsay in Mid Bedfordshire.

Friends, our by-election record in the last two and half years is nothing less than historic.

And so too have been our fantastic local election results.

This May, we gained an incredible four-hundred-and-seven councillors right across England – from Sunderland to South Hams, from Lewes to Lancaster.

And gained control of twelve more councils.

In Scotland last year, we boosted our councillor base by a third. We’re growing back strongly there too as we hold the Nationalists to account for the total mess they have made of everything.

In Wales, we took control of Powys Council for the first time ever.

Liberal Democrats – right across our United Kingdom – you should all be so proud of what we’ve achieved together.

Our campaigns – our victories – are changing the future of British politics and turning the tide against the Conservatives.

We’ve shown the next election won’t be all about the Red Wall.

It’s about the Blue Wall too. Former Tory heartlands where we’ve shown we are the only ones who can win.

The only ones who can bring the change people crave.

And even better. With Richard’s win in Devon, Sarah’s in Somerset and superb local government success, we can now say proudly:

The Liberal Democrats are back in the West Country!

A second front against the Conservatives, where every Liberal Democrat vote is the powerful vote for change.

But now comes the big one.

The General Election.

For the British people, the next General Election can’t come quickly enough.

People are desperate for change.

And while Rishi Sunak clings on – out of touch and out of ideas –

Our job – our responsibility – is to show the British people that positive change is possible.

And that we are ready to fight for it, whenever the election comes.

And this week, we’ve done just that.

We’ve shown we have the policies, the passion and the people – not just to get the Conservatives out, but to deliver the real change people want.

The fair deal people deserve.

Our task is to get more brilliant Liberal Democrat MPs elected – so they can be strong local champions for their communities. And lead the change our country needs.

Bringing real hope to millions in this economic crisis.

Hope to people struggling to get by and struggling to get on.

Cleaning up our environment.

Rescuing our NHS and care system.

Transforming our politics for good.

Remember at the start of the year, Sunak gave a big speech where he told the country “we’re either delivering for you – or we’re not”?

Well, in fairness to Rishi, he was telling the truth.

It is one of those two things.

And friends, I think we all know which one.

His Government is failing to deliver, and what’s so horrific is the sheer scale of their failure.

In so many ways, our country today just isn’t working the way it should.

It’s not working as it should for the parents forced to travel two hours just to find their kids an NHS dentist. Or skipping meals so their children can eat.

It’s not working for the couple in my constituency, who fear losing their home of thirteen years as their mortgage payments have shot up by more than four hundred pounds a month.

It’s not working for the teaching assistant and her young family, evicted from their home in Ambleside so the landlord could turn it into a holiday let.

It’s not working for the pensioner going without heat in the winter.

Or the commuter left on the platform by yet another cancelled train.

It’s not working for the swimmer who spent thirteen days in hospital with cellulitis after swimming in sewage-infested water.

Conference, I have never known our country so badly governed.

Crimes unsolved. Backlogs in our courts. Delays to get a passport.

Crumbling school buildings. High streets in decline. And potholes, everywhere.

Now, there are many reasons why all these issues have got so bad, of course.

But there is one fundamental cause.

The Conservative Party.

Britain isn’t working, because the Conservatives aren’t working.

They’re more like a bad TV soap than a functioning government.

The factions and the feuds.

The personal vendettas.

The shock exits. And unwelcome returns.

Each episode worse than the last.

Well it’s time to change the channel.

The corruption of Boris Johnson. The chaos of Liz Truss. The carelessness of Rishi Sunak.

This whole Conservative shambles.

They all have to go.

And Liberal Democrats, our task is to get them out. And then get Britain working again.

And that of course starts with the economy.

We need to get our economy growing strongly again.

Conservative Ministers might think zero percent growth and seven per cent inflation are numbers to boast about – but the British people certainly don’t.

Inflation’s still higher than any time since Black Wednesday. Worse even than the height of the financial crisis.

Food prices up thirty percent in just two years. Energy bills almost doubled. Mortgage rates through the roof.

And Rishi Sunak says this all shows his plan is working.

Honestly, the Prime Minister sounds so complacent, so out of touch, sometimes I think he must be reading the graphs upside down.

Well Rishi, if this is what it looks like when your plan is working, I think we need a new plan.

And that’s what the Liberal Democrats have been putting forward.

A real plan – not just to stop things getting worse, not just to return to business as usual – but to build the economy of the future.

To build an economy that is genuinely innovative, prosperous and fair.

An economic plan that gives everyone the chance to get on in life, and see their hard work and aspiration properly rewarded.

A plan that backs entrepreneurs to grow their small businesses and create worthwhile, well-paid jobs in their communities.

And yes – a plan to tackle the climate crisis, reach net zero, and embrace the clean technologies of the future.

To lead the world, instead of trying to hide from it.

Conference, after Rishi Sunak’s disgraceful speech last week, the contrast between our approach and his could not be clearer.

We already knew he doesn’t care about tackling climate change. That’s no surprise.

But what about the damage his U-turns will do to our economy? To our car industry? To people’s jobs right across the UK?

Doesn’t Sunak care about any of it? Apparently not.

Frankly, instead of delivering that speech, Rishi should have torn it up and thrown it away.

If he’s got seven bins, he might as well use them!

His small-minded and backward looking approach is simply not worthy of our great United Kingdom.

From the steam train to the internet, Britain has always led the world with ingenuity and innovation.

We are a nation of pioneers and inventors. Not just in our history, but in our present and our future.

Liberal Democrats understand that.

In Government, we made Britain the world leader in offshore wind.

We invested early. We had an industrial strategy. We showed we were serious.

We attracted global firms to come to the UK, and spend tens of billions of pounds to build factories and windfarms and create thousands of clean, secure jobs.

And thanks to Liberal Democrat policies, the price of wind energy has more than halved.

So now renewables are by far the cheapest form of electricity. And the most popular.

We could be doing the same with so many other new technologies.

Tidal power. Clean flight. High-speed rail.

Creating jobs and cutting prices.

But Rishi Sunak says no.

We say: build Britain’s economic future here in the UK. Rishi Sunak says: outsource it to China.

That is a dismal failure of leadership. And we can do so much better.

Britain led the world, and we can lead it again.

But not with the Conservatives squabbling amongst themselves and clinging to the fossil fuels of the past.

And not with the Prime Minister refusing even to attend the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Instead of standing at his lectern in Downing Street single-handedly trashing our economic future,

Rishi Sunak should have been in New York working with global leaders to tackle this crisis together.

Britain can be an incredible force for good when it stands tall on the world stage.

But Rishi Sunak doesn’t seem to care about that either.

He’s getting it wrong at home, and he’s getting it badly wrong abroad too.

Our vision is for a Britain that leads the world as we embrace the economy of the future.

The Conservatives would only shackle us to the past.

And there’s another crucial part of our economic vision. Another area where we are different from this Government.

Something that would so obviously make an enormous difference to our economy and our standard of living.

Something we have always been proud to champion, even when no one else even dared whisper it.

Fixing our broken relationship with Europe.

The Conservatives botched the deal with Europe, and it’s been a disaster for the UK.

They sold out British farmers and fishers.

They tied up British business in red tape.

And they pushed up food prices in our supermarkets.

So much unnecessary pain inflicted on so many by so few.

And only the Liberal Democrats have consistently stood up against it.

Only we have set out a plan to tear down those trade barriers, fix our broken relationship with Europe and get a better deal for Britain.

Yes – only we.

Because Labour’s plan – if you can call it a plan – is nowhere near that ambitious.

To be fair, they’ve come a long way from when they voted for Boris Johnson’s terrible deal.

But Labour has a long way still to go.

Which means it’s up to us to lead the way.

A better economy. A better future. With Europe.

Opportunity. Investment. Innovation. Trade.

That’s the Liberal Democrat recipe for economic success.

And one more ingredient:

People.

Because at its heart, what makes our approach different is that we understand that the economy isn’t just a series of abstract percentages and meaningless slogans.

It’s all of us.

It’s the things we do every day, together.

It’s the jobs we do. The services we rely on. The food we eat. The homes we live in.

It’s the TV shows we watch. The places we visit. The presents we give each other.

We understand that, when you strip everything else away, an economy is its people.

And if we want to get our economy growing strongly again, we need to focus far more on our people.

That means investing in people through education. Training. Skills. Of course.

But today I want to talk about another investment in people.

An investment that too often has not been linked to economic growth – even though it’s central to growth.

And that’s an investment in people’s physical and mental health.

Because we can’t build the economy we need, with seven million people stuck on NHS waiting lists.

We can’t grow the economy with two and half million people shut out of the labour market by long-term physical and mental illness.

When people aren’t supported to recover from long Covid.

Wait weeks for a GP appointment.

Can’t get basic help, so they can get back to work, feed their families and get on in life.

A healthy economy needs a healthy population…

And a healthy NHS.

I am so proud that we Liberal Democrats have consistently led the way in highlighting the crises in the NHS and proposing solutions.

Reversing cuts to GP numbers and guaranteeing an appointment when you need one.

Tackling life-threatening ambulance delays, and improving access to NHS dentists.

There are so many parts of our NHS plan that would both treat people better and boost our economy.

And today I’d like to focus on one particular, awful part of this health crisis. That shatters lives, and takes people in their prime.

It can be very difficult to talk about. It’s difficult for me, and I know it’s difficult for many of you, but we do need to talk about it.

And that’s cancer.

As many of you know, my brothers and I lost both our parents to cancer when we were young.

My dad died aged thirty-eight, just a few months after being diagnosed with a cancer called Hodgkin lymphoma.

I was only four, so I don’t remember it very well.

What I do remember is my mum’s grief. And her incredible strength in the months and years that followed, after being widowed so young, with three boys under ten.

Then, when I was nine, cancer came for mum too.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I do remember how that felt.

She had treatment, including a mastectomy. But three years later, they found secondary breast cancer – metastatic cancer – in her bones.

And they told her it was incurable.

Yet mum refused to accept that it was incurable. She battled it for three years. For her boys.

She tried everything – including a naturopath – while we looked after her.

It was hardest of course in the last eighteen months or so, as she became bed-ridden and the pain became excruciating.

For me, caring for her became my life. Before school and after school.

I’d sit for hours on her bed, talking to her. Telling her about my day, listening to her stories. Trying to make the most of every minute.

When she was fighting the cancer with the naturopath, my top task was mashing up carrots and apples for the healthy juice drinks she lived on.

Then there was helping her with the pain. Pouring out doses of morphine from this big bell jar we had in the kitchen. I don’t think they’d allow that now.

Putting pads on her legs and sides so she could give herself small electric shocks when the pain got really bad.

That was a tough period as a teenager. But of course it was much tougher for mum.

Yet those years were also special. They gave me an incredible bond with my mum.

She was so strong, so resilient. Fighting to be with her boys, even in the face of such a cruel disease.

I like to think I learnt a lot from her.

I was fifteen when she died.

They’d put her on a totally unsuitable dementia ward in Nottingham General Hospital.

I was visiting her. On my way to school. In my school uniform. By her bedside.

When she died.

Now I don’t tell you all this because I want you to feel sorry for me. It was a long long time ago and I’ve been very lucky since.

But I do tell you all about it because actually too many families have their cancer stories. Like mine. Today.

My family’s story isn’t unique: there are millions of us whose lives get turned upside down by cancer.

This very day, across the UK, a thousand people will hear that fateful diagnosis.

A thousand people, choking back tears as they try to process what it means for them.

A thousand people, trying to figure out how to tell their loved ones.

How to break the news to their partners. To their parents. To their children.

And then, a thousand people wondering what comes next.

Now, we are fortunate in this country that there are brilliant people in our NHS and in charities like Macmillan.

And there’s a story of progress. And hope.

Cancer mortality rates have fallen by twenty-five percent in the last thirty years.

Ten-year survival rates have doubled in the last forty.

Diagnoses like both my parents were given are no longer necessarily the death sentence today that they were back then.

Science, and universal healthcare, really are wonderful things.

But I still think we could be doing so much better on cancer.

Far too many people are still waiting, far too long for a diagnosis. Or to start treatment after being diagnosed.

And I’m afraid to say, they’ve been let down and forgotten by this Conservative Government.

Last year, the Government promised a new Ten-Year Cancer Plan.

It was supposed to be “a searching new vision for how we will lead the world in cancer care”.

This year – after two changes of Prime Minister and three changes of Health Secretary – that plan has been junked.

Yet another casualty of all the Conservative chaos.

Hopes raised. Only to be cruelly dashed.

Because we do need a cancer plan.

Despite all the progress, our survival rates still lag behind France, Germany, the US and Japan.

And the Government is now missing every single one of its waiting time targets for cancer.

Not by a little. But by a lot.

Right now, there are more than twenty thousand people across England who’ve been told they have suspected cancer –

Who have been referred for urgent treatment by their GP –

But who’ve been waiting more than two months to start treatment.

More than two months.

Just imagine the fear. The anxiety. The helplessness.

Knowing you need treatment. Knowing every day could make a difference.

But powerless to do anything but wait.

Like Ian. An engineer who I was speaking to just last week.

Ian lives in Nottingham, just down the road from where I lived with mum before she passed away.

And like me, Ian lost both of his parents to cancer when he was young too.

Ian had been fit and healthy all his life, but he was diagnosed with bowel cancer two years ago, in his mid-sixties.

The national screening programme caught it early. It was a small stage one tumour.

Crucially, it was operable.

Ian needed chemotherapy and surgery – as quickly as possible.

But he was kept waiting for four months before starting any treatment.

Now his cancer has progressed to stage four and spread to his liver.

Now it’s inoperable.

Ian calls those four months of waiting the worst time of his life.

He said “I would wake up every morning wondering if I had a future.”

And he told me how preventing those delays could not only have saved his own despair, but also saved the NHS so much money.

Conference, it’s just not right to keep people in such limbo, for so long.

We owe patients better than that.

We owe their families – their children and their loved ones – better than that.

We owe Ian better than that.

We must, must, must do better than that.

But here again, there is hope.

Just in the last few months, we have seen incredible breakthroughs that could revolutionise the way we diagnose and treat many types of cancer.

Trials of a new blood test that can detect more than fifty types of cancer are encouraging, and the head of the NHS says it could “transform cancer care forever”.

A simple blood test you could even carry out at home.

Or the new breast cancer drug trialled at the Royal Marsden hospital.

It’s been shown to slow the growth of tumours – and even shrink them in many cases. With far less debilitating side effects than chemotherapy.

Just think what a difference breakthroughs like these could make.

Think how much time they could save.

How much misery they could prevent.

How many lives they could save.

It’s the job of government to back research like this, so scientists and doctors can make the next breakthrough, and the one after that, and the one after that.

It’s the job of government to make sure that – whenever those breakthroughs happen – the NHS rolls out the benefits to patients as quickly as possible.

If someone’s life can be saved by a new blood test or a new drug, no unnecessary delays should stand in their way.

And it’s the job of government to make sure that we are diagnosing cancer as early as possible, that patients are starting treatment as early as possible, and that every patient gets the ongoing care and support they need.

Now, friends, none of this should be party political.

I know there are MPs in every party who have lost loved ones to cancer like I did, or who’ve battled it themselves.

So I fervently hope we can build a consensus across politics to make cancer a top priority in the next Parliament.

But as Leader of our party, I can at least promise you this:

For Liberal Democrat MPs, it will be a top priority.

And that’s why today I am announcing our new and ambitious plan to end unacceptable cancer delays and boost survival rates.

We will hold the Government to account, for every target it misses and every patient it fails.

We will never stop fighting for better care for you and your loved ones.

Of course, it’s not just cancer where the Government is letting patients down.

It’s pretty much everything.

The Conservatives have broken promise after promise on the NHS.

From their forty new hospitals. To six thousand more GPs. To Rishi Sunak’s pledge to bring waiting lists down.

All of it – just meaningless noise.

All a total con.

Perhaps there should be a warning on the ballot paper, like there is on cigarette packets:

Voting Conservative is bad for your health.

So it falls to us to rescue the NHS, and make sure everyone can get the care they need, when they need it.

We know it won’t be easy, but we see a bright future for the NHS.

Not because we are blind to the scale of the crisis,

But because we are clear-eyed about the solutions:

More GPs, so that everyone can get an appointment within seven days, or twenty-four hours if it’s urgent.

More investment in the latest technology from MRI scanners to radiotherapy machines.

And, crucially, more carers.

Conference, we know that the crisis in the NHS is inextricably linked to the crisis in care.

We know that you can’t fix the NHS without fixing social care.

We know you can’t fix the NHS without valuing family carers.

Fix care and you fix the NHS.

Better social care, with many more care professionals, better paid.

More support for family carers, so people can cope better looking after loved ones.

These are low-tech, affordable ways to save our NHS – investing in care.

So people can be discharged more quickly. Or don’t need hospital care in the first place.

So pressure on overstretched hospitals can be reduced.

So patients aren’t stuck for hours waiting to be seen in A&E.

So ambulances aren’t stuck for hours waiting outside A&E to hand over patients.

It’s all connected.

Our plan for social care and family care is a central part of our plan for the future Health Service.

And remember – in turn, health and care both are key parts of our plan for the economy.

The Conservatives broke our economy with their carelessness.

Liberal Democrats will fix our economy with care.

As we make our pitch to people, we need to show such real change is possible. We need to restore hope.

For when you look at the harm these Conservatives have done to people, done to our country, one of their worst is this.

Cynicism.

When I speak to people on the doorstep or in my surgeries, I get a very clear impression of this.

The idea that nothing can be done. That people in power don’t care. And won’t fix things.

A sense of hopelessness.

The toxic brew of incompetence, scandal and chaos served up by this Government has poisoned not only people’s view of the Conservatives, but their trust in politics as a whole.

Frankly, it’s the only weapon the Conservatives have left: convince people to expect less from government.

Now, there are two ways to respond to the widespread cynicism the Conservatives foment.

One way is simply to accept it.

That’s the path that the Labour Party sadly seems to have chosen:

Lower your sights. Give up on really changing things. Make your pitch nothing more than “Not as bad as the Tories”.

Half-heartedly oppose what the Conservatives are doing, and then shrug your shoulders and say “we’d pretty much do the same thing”.

That’s one way of responding to it. But it is not the Liberal Democrat way.

Our ambition for our country is much greater than that.

Our faith in the British people is much stronger than that.

Our path – the path we have always chosen – the path we walk today – is to confront that cynicism head on, and to offer people hope.

Not with yet more platitudes and promises. Not by announcing another nebulous “mission” that’s immediately forgotten when the speech is over.

No. By fighting for the big changes. The changes needed to restore people’s trust in politics and rebuild their confidence in our public services.

And that starts with real political reform.

Liberal Democrats have long known that Britain’s political system is broken.

Millions of people – powerless and excluded. Robbed of their rightful say and unable to hold the powerful to account.

And we’ve always fought to change that.

But the Conservatives… Instead of fixing our broken politics, have shattered it into pieces.

Their constant attacks on the rule of law and traditional British freedoms.

Their betrayal of integrity, truth and honesty.

Stuffing the Lords with Boris Johnson’s lackeys.

Handing out billions in contracts to their cronies.

One rule for them, another rule for the rest of us.

And it wasn’t just Boris Johnson.

Owen Paterson. Nadhim Zahawi. Matt Hancock. Dominic Raab.

So much sleaze. So many scandals.

No wonder people are cynical.

Clearing it up is no small task.

It will take more than tinkering around the edges.

We need to transform the nature of British politics itself.

To make it more relevant, engaging and responsive to people’s needs and their dreams.

To bring together our great family of nations, instead of tearing it apart.

And yes, at the heart of those reforms must be a fair electoral system.

Proportional representation, so everyone’s vote counts equally.

Because we know that the antidote to cynicism is not defeatism. It’s empowerment.

Putting real power in every voter’s hands, to elect MPs who can’t take them for granted, who have to listen to their concerns, who must work hard for them.

Real power to hold politicians properly to account when they fail to deliver.

Real power to demand better schools and hospitals, affordable housing and safe communities, and a clean, healthy environment.

That’s why fair votes is such an important part of the fair deal we’re fighting for.

Empowering people at the ballot box is the only way to make the big changes we need as a country.

It’s the only way to mend our broken politics, restore trust, and offer real hope.

But when we listen to people, we get it: it is hard to hope right now.

With everything we’ve been through, the years of Conservative neglect and the multiple crises we face.

And with a terrible war still waging on our continent.

It’s hard to hope.

So I don’t blame anyone for feeling cynical.

I blame the Conservatives for spreading cynicism – I don’t blame anyone for feeling it.

But for myself, I’m still incredibly optimistic about our future as a country.

Because everywhere I go, I see the amazing strength, decency and courage of the British people.

And because my life has taught me that, no matter how tough things get, you can get through them. Brighter days can follow even the darkest.

That was true for me as a teenager, and I know it’s true for our country today.

Our future is bright.

Better days lie ahead for our country, and – Liberal Democrats – we know what must be done to reach them.

Mend our broken politics. Put real power in people’s hands.

Support people through this awful cost-of-living crisis.

Save the NHS, fix care, and make cancer a top priority.

Clean up our rivers and protect our precious environment.

Build the economy of the future, lead the world, and spread prosperity and opportunity to all.

This is our vision.

These are our priorities.

These are the big changes our country needs.

So let me be crystal clear:

Whenever the next election comes, every vote for the Liberal Democrats will be a vote to make these changes happen.

And every Liberal Democrat elected to Parliament will fight tirelessly to make them happen.

That is how we rebuild trust, restore hope and repair our country.

So Conference,

We have our policies.

We have our priorities.

And very soon, we will have our election.

And I know you’re ready.

I have seen you on the streets of Shropshire and the doorsteps of Devon.

I have seen your determination and dedication, and it makes me so proud to be one of your number.

And I firmly believe that, together, we are the strongest campaigning force in British politics.

We have taken chunks out of the Blue Wall.

We have made it start to crumble.

So now let’s smash it for good.

The British people are desperate for hope.

The British people are desperate for change.

The British people are desperate for a fair deal.

And we are the ones who can make it happen.

So let’s get to it!

Thank you.

The speech made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference on 19 March 2023.

I never knew my dad was a Liberal. He passed away when I was four – so we never got to talk politics.

To be honest, I’d always assumed he was a Tory because mum told me he used to play snooker at the local Conservative club.

So you can imagine what it meant to me when, years later, I came across this newspaper cutting my gran had kept – I guess from the late 1950s – about a garden party held by the Mansfield Divisional Liberal Association.

With a fancy dress parade and music from something called the “Codas beat group”. The cutting quotes my dad, “Mr John Davey” – as Chair of the Mansfield Liberals – saying that, unlike the Government of the day, “Liberals were not ‘pig-headed and pie-eyed theorists’, but people dedicated to public service. “Their dedication to service was untouched by selfish motives, and that was the mark of the Liberal.” Well, Dad, I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Conference, we’re all here today for the same reason that my Dad and his fellow Liberals were in that garden in Mansfield all those years ago: Because of our deep sense of public service. Because we love our country, we love our communities, and we want to serve them. And not a pig-headed pie-eyed theorist in sight!

So, it seems I might have, unknowingly, inherited my liberalism from my dad. But I do know I learnt a lot from my mum.

Having lost our dad to cancer, mum raised me and my two brothers on her own – even as she then became ill with cancer herself. When I was growing up, I didn’t realise how tough it must have been for mum. You don’t, do you? That’s the mark of a great parent.

I always knew she was a brilliant mum. But looking back I can now see just what a remarkable woman she was. Mum taught me all about compassion. Resilience. Sacrifice.

Loving, caring, and just keeping going. All the things that make us human. But she didn’t do it alone. Remarkable though she was, she couldn’t have done it alone.

Mum needed support from the government. And support from our community. I remember walking our dog with her, to the local post office, to collect her widow’s pension, every fortnight.

We weren’t especially hard up, but I’ve never forgotten how important those widow pension payments were for her. For us. As she adjusted to life as a single mum. Bringing up three young boys – all of us under ten, when dad died. And I’ll always remember some fabulous Indian curries that our neighbours – the Malhotras – used to bring round when mum was ill. And after she was gone. Just to make things that little bit easier for us.

Conference, the incredible power of strong communities and a strong social safety net, must never be taken for granted. And the values I learnt from my mum – and my experiences looking after her during her long, painful illness – they’ve shaped my life and driven my politics. Probably far more than any liberal DNA I got from my dad.

Compassion. Community. Fairness. Those are the values that make me a liberal. They’re why I’m a Liberal Democrat.

Why I’ve always fought for social justice. For strong communities and for a more caring society. And they’re the values that make me so proud of our party. And when I meet people acting out those values every day across our United Kingdom, it also makes me so proud to be British.

But Conference, those liberal, British values are also why I am so angry with this Conservative Government. Because they just don’t get it. I’m angry at the way these Conservatives have squandered the hard work and sacrifices of the British people.

As families and pensioners, businesses and workers have all spent the last year battling soaring energy bills, rising food prices and the long shadow of the pandemic –

The Conservatives have indulged in damaging party infighting and dangerous ideological experiments. Pig-headed and pie-eyed, my dad would have said! And I’m not just talking about Boris Johnson or Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.

I’m talking about every single Conservative MP: at every step of the way putting their own narrow self-interest above our national interest.

The Conservatives: always so out-of-touch. Always taking people for granted. What a disgrace they are. Just at a time of crisis, when we did need “strong and stable” government, the Conservatives gave us chaos and division. When Britain needed integrity, they gave us Boris Johnson.

When our country needed wise leadership, they gave us Liz Truss. When people needed change, they gave us more of the same with Rishi Sunak. When we needed a gallant crew on the bridge to steer our great British ship through choppy waters,

We’ve instead had a bunch of mutinous pirates, only interested in who got to wear the captain’s hat. We needed Hornblower. They gave us Pugwash.

Friends, this is going to sound revolutionary, but bear with me… When the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, I believe the role of government should be to help people and help businesses, properly. Not make it worse!

But apparently these Conservative don’t see it that way.

Their cost-of-living crisis has plunged a million more people into poverty – many of them children. Tens of thousands of families have been made homeless. Many more families are relying on foodbanks – including some of the hardest working people in our country. As last week’s Budget confirmed, people are seeing their living standards plummet at a faster rate than ever before. And the Conservatives’ answer? Appoint a new Deputy Chairman to tell people to stop whining. To tell them they can get by on 30p a meal.

It’s not just that the Conservatives are out-of-touch – they are on another planet. Just look at the policy choices these Conservatives have made over the last year… while millions have struggled.

Tax properly the record profits of the oil and gas giants, as Liberal Democrats were the first to argue – profits made on the back of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine? It’s a “no” from Rishi Sunak. But take money out of the pockets of struggling families with unfair income tax rises? An enthusiastic “yes” from the Conservatives.

Start to cut energy bills as gas prices fall, as we proposed, so families and pensioners don’t have to choose between heating and eating? No way, says Jeremy Hunt.

But recklessly add hundreds of pounds to people’s monthly mortgage bills, pushing many to the brink of losing their homes? With pleasure, as they all gleefully cheered Liz Truss’s budget.

The Conservatives aren’t serving the public – they are only serving themselves. Utterly devoid of the values that make our country so great. Compassion. Community. Fairness.

These are touchstones for the British people. They are fundamental to us as Liberal Democrats. But they are alien to today’s Conservative Party. Conference, I don’t believe there is much that is guaranteed in British politics any longer.

But there is one rule that I think is set in stone – And that’s how you know when a Government has reached the end of the road. Here it is. You can call it “Davey’s First Law of Politics” if you like.

And it’s this: You know a Government has reached the end of the road when it chooses to pick a fight with Match of the Day.

Honestly Conference. If they didn’t think it was all over before, they certainly do now.

Incidentally, this newspaper cutting that quotes my dad also quotes a “Mrs J Maizel” who opened that garden party all those years ago – with a warning that, under the then Government, “the National Health Service will soon grind to a halt”.

“Even if we have hospitals built,” she said, “without the changes that are needed, there will not be the nurses to staff them.”

Conference, she could have been speaking to us today! But I don’t think even Mrs Maizel could have predicted the sheer depths of the crisis into which the Conservatives have plunged our NHS today. Patients in every part of the country, waiting hours for an ambulance…

Weeks to see a GP… Months to start treatment for cancer. Seven million people on hospital waiting lists. And these are not just statistics – shocking though they are. Not just targets missed – appalling though that is.

In far too many cases, these delays are the difference between life and death. Between the mother being there to see her daughter get married, or not. Being able to hold her first grandson – or never getting to meet him. Between enjoying the retirement she’s worked and saved her whole life to earn – Or never even getting to start it. I know what it means to lose your parents to cancer, far too young. How devastating. How unfair. Of course I get that it’s not always possible to prevent it. But I also know that, for too many families right now, it could have been prevented.

Prevented, if we had a Government truly committed to public service values. And when you look to the future – Perhaps even worse than plunging our country into the twin crises with cost-of-living and healthcare – Is the Conservatives’ total lack of ambition to solve people’s problems. And their total lack of vision for the future. At every step of the way – on the economy, the cost-of-living or the NHS – Rishi Sunak has had to be dragged kicking and screaming just to do the bare minimum.

His great “vision” for Britain, set out in his five-point plan at the beginning of the year, basically amounts to: “Try not to make things any worse.”

Take economic growth. Remember when governments used to talk about targeting three, four, five percent? Rishi Sunak’s target? Anything above zero. It’s like a mid-table football club with a new manager, targeting to avoid relegation, rather than a place in the Champions League. And Jeremy Hunt in his Budget on Wednesday, proudly boasting not that the economy is growing, but that it might just avoid a technical recession after all. Total defeatism from a government that’s run out of ideas and has nothing left to offer.

The way Conservative MPs talk nowadays, it’s like they know the truth: Their Government needs to be put out of its misery. So what of Labour? Labour’s ambitions are hardly much higher. Their only goal seems to be: “Not as bad as the Conservatives”. Talk about a low bar!

The bar is so low with Labour, you’d need a team of deep-sea divers just to find it! Conference, our country can do so much better than that. The British people deserve so much more than that. And Liberal Democrats, our ambition for our country is so much greater than that.

We understand that you can’t just keep applying one short-term sticking plaster on top of another –- while the wound deepens and festers underneath. We understand that – whether it’s energy bills, or social care, or the climate crisis, or even the political system itself – Tinkering around the edges simply isn’t good enough. For us, it’s about more than just changing the faces at the top of politics.

It’s about more than changing who sits in power. It’s about changing where power sits. It’s about changing the whole way British politics is done.

Liberal Democrats, we are the party of the deep political reform so many millions of our fellow citizens yearn for – And we must never rest till we have delivered that real reform. That real change. Our goal must be nothing less than to change the very nature of British politics itself.

For a hundred years, Liberals and Liberal Democrats have fought for fair votes. To give everyone an equal voice in our democracy. To hold all Members of Parliament, properly to account. And while the other parties still cling to the discredited First Past the Post electoral system, Our zeal for Proportional Representation remains undimmed today. Conference, we will make it happen. We will make fair votes a reality.

But, friends, we also know that reforming our politics – to put more power in people’s hands – goes far beyond changing the way we vote. It means shifting more power out of the centre in Whitehall, so local decisions are made by and for the people and communities they affect. That commitment to community politics is one of the foundation stones of our party. It sets us as Liberal Democrats apart from the other parties.

We are passionate about local democracy. Passionate about the good Liberal Democrat councils can do for their communities – as demonstrated so brilliantly here in York. By councillors like Keith Aspden, who has led our party here in York for a decade. And we are passionate about giving people a say, a voice and real power outside elections and outside the town hall.

Empowering people to be part of the decisions for their community is an incredibly potent force for improving people’s lives – and for engaging those who feel left out. Conference, let’s remember why this matters. Improving our democracy is an important end in itself, but it’s also how you build a better country. Make votes count. Give communities real power. Just imagine how things will get better.

For here’s the secret. People want good schools. Good hospitals. Affordable housing and safe communities. People want a clean, healthy natural environment. They want an end to the Conservatives letting water companies get away with pumping filthy sewage straight into our rivers. The biggest environmental crime in our country today. And a crime that will cost the Conservatives dozens of seats if they don’t act. Our historic task is to create a new politics, where government has to respond to all of the people. Not just a few swing-voters in a handful of marginal seats. Or a tiny cabal of big-money donors. With a better electoral system. With more power in the hands of individuals and communities, Politicians and parties will have to be more focused on the things that really matter to people. And we’ll have better public services and a fairer society as a result.

And Conference, it’s not just this ambitious destination and reforming vision that makes us so different. It’s our starting point too. The values we start from. Our principles. Our philosophy.

We start from a fundamental belief in the intrinsic value of every human being. We are deeply optimistic about people. We see beauty in each individual. And we believe that if you free people – if you empower them, if you give them more choices in life – Then you unleash the best in people – and they create the better, fairer society we all want. You see, unlike Labour, we don’t think the state always knows best what people need. And unlike the Conservatives, we understand that an active state is essential to empower people and enlarge individual freedom. And we don’t sneer at the choices people make about their lives, just because they are different to the ones we might make about our own.

We believe that the problems in our country – and around the world – come not from individuals having too much control over their lives, but too little. That’s why the core of our mission as liberals is to put more power in people’s hands – And making society fairer so everyone has the opportunity to put their power into practice.

That’s what we’re about: Empowering people. And holding the already powerful to account.

From the oil and gas giants who pollute our planet to the water companies who pollute our rivers. From out-of-control Prime Ministers who break the law, to out-of-touch MPs who take their constituents for granted. People thirst for a politics that can stand up to all this. That can stop the outrageous abuse of political and economic power.

Conference, our reforming mission is to do just that. And liberals believe that basic rights and human dignity are not weapons to be brandished in some manufactured culture war, But the birthright of every individual. To be respected and to be cherished.

That is where we always start from as Liberal Democrats. With people – and their freedoms. It’s what sets us apart from the other parties. And it’s what gives us a unique and vital role in British politics today. Conference, a vital and patriotic role, because so much of Britain’s great history has been a tale of our liberal values, in practice. Progress hasn’t always been smooth, and certainly hasn’t been as rapid as we’d like… But liberals have shaped so much of what we love about our United Kingdom today.

It was Victorian Liberals who overturned centuries of protectionism and ushered in a new era of free trade and prosperity. It was a Liberal government that introduced health insurance, unemployment insurance, the state pension, and free school meals for children – more than one hundred years ago. And – even though liberals have rarely been in government since then – we have nevertheless driven so many of the progressive reforms of the last century. Expanding the welfare state and creating the National Health Service.

Legalising abortion, decriminalising homosexuality and introducing same-sex marriage. Investing in renewable power and securing more aid for the world’s most vulnerable people. Fighting and winning the case for more investment in our children’s education. Liberal values in practice. Liberal policies in place. Thanks to us.

But as we all know, Conference, the changes we have fought for have never come easily. How many times has our party paid a heavy price, for standing up for what we know to be right? We all bear the scars of the battle for a more liberal Britain. We have marched, many times, towards the sound of gunfire, and the noise still rings in our ears. And tragically, in recent years we have seen too much liberal progress unpicked, by a Conservative Party determined to take our country backwards. But we march on, undeterred.

Just as it didn’t deter the great liberal heroes of the past, who fought bravely, who overcame the odds, and changed our country for the better. We stand on the shoulders of those liberals in Britain who helped to write the best chapters of our island story so far. Our job today is to write the next chapter for Britain. To make our country’s future as bright as we know it can be. To make our fair deal for people, a reality for all. To win the battle for liberal Britain. Conference, I joined this party. I campaign for this party. I serve this party as leader – because I believe only we can do it. Because our fair deal can only be delivered by a party that listens to people’s dreams and desires, and works with people to make dreams a reality.

A party that doesn’t simply tell people what’s good for them. Our fair deal can only be delivered by a party open to new ideas. Prepared to seek out new solutions to the challenges of the future, rather than reaching back for the tired old answers of the past.

As another liberal once said in another country, at another time of great change and challenge: “The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans.

“It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress.”

No – it can only be moved by us: liberals who believe the future can be better than the past. Who embrace the excitement and danger of building that future. And who have the courage and the vision to make it happen. And that’s what liberals have always been all about.

Listening to people, thinking big about the problems they face, and making the changes they need – even in the most challenging times. When Britain faced the existential threat of German invasion in the forties, the Liberal William Beveridge looked beyond the Second World War to envisage a universal healthcare system, free at the point of use.

Open to everyone, regardless of wealth. The NHS. A Liberal invention and one of things that makes us so proud to be British. We cherish the NHS. We all have loved ones who owe their lives to it. And we will never forgive the Conservatives for what they have done to it. Leaving our brilliant nurses overstretched, underpaid and exhausted. Leaving hospitals to crumble. Leaving patients to suffer. In the twenty-five years since I was first elected to Parliament, I have never seen the NHS in a worse state than it is today. Conference, we have to save our NHS from this Conservative vandalism.

And we know – as we have said many times over many years – that we cannot save and repair the NHS without fixing social care. So even as we battle through this current crisis, let us do as liberals have always done and set our sights on a better future – not just for the NHS, but for social care too. Because care remains the unfinished business of Beveridge’s reforms. And as we think about our historic mission to reform care, and save the NHS, let us never forget the millions of family carers who do the vast bulk of our nation’s caring. So as we reform social care, let us at the same time reform how we support our nation’s precious family carers.

The mother and fathers. The sons and daughters. The grandparents and grandchildren. The kinship carers. The people who care because they love. As I said in my first speech as Leader, I want us to be the party of carers. The voice of carers. So we can save the NHS. My own caring journey has shown me how far we still have to go. My mum was an only child, so when her mum, my grandmother, became frail in her later years, it fell largely to me and my brother to organise her care. That experience, looking after my dearest Nanna, certainly taught me how challenging getting old can be. How failing eyesight, brittle bones and loneliness can take such a big toll.

How a lifetime’s savings and work can so quickly be wiped away by extortionate care bills. How much of a battle it can be to make sure our loved ones spend their twilight years with dignity and in comfort. It shouldn’t be so hard. And today, as Emily and I care for our wonderful son John – Whose neurological condition means he can’t talk or walk by himself, Who lights up our world, but needs 24/7 care, and probably will do long after we are gone – As we care for John, and as I meet other carers all around the country, I see how important it is that we get care right. But, regrettably, how undervalued care and carers still are by the people in power. It shouldn’t be so hard. So I’m proud that our party has always prioritised care. Stitching together a long-term, cross-party solution to fund care for the elderly a decade ago – Only to see it ripped up by the Conservatives when they were back in government alone.

Friends. We are seeing the consequences of the Tories’ treachery on care today: The appalling and avoidable crises in both social care and the NHS. So let us take up the challenge of finishing Beveridge’s work. Armed with the plan we adopted this morning, to build a system of social care that really works –Based on the same principles as the NHS So that everyone can get the care they need, when they need it. And carers can get the support, when they need it too. And let’s bring that same bold, visionary approach to our economy as well.

Yes, we need immediate solutions to the cost-of-living crisis engulfing so many families and pensioners – Like using a proper windfall tax to cut energy bills – But we need far more than that too. The Government’s aim cannot just be mere economic survival. Stopping the recession may be the limits of Rishi Sunak’s ambition, but it is nowhere near enough. The British people deserve and need better. A strong and sustainable economy, with genuine prosperity and opportunity for all.

Where businesses are able to create good jobs in all parts of the United Kingdom, and where hard work and aspiration are properly rewarded. And, Liberal Democrats, we know what that means: Backing small businesses – the lifeblood of our economy and the heart of thriving local communities.

Prioritising people. With education and training. And yes, with quality childcare – but also making it easier for all family carers to juggle work and care, something the Chancellor totally ignored. Investing in new technology and harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence. And above all, investing in a green economic recovery to create hundreds of thousands of clean, secure, well-paid new jobs – across the UK’s nations and regions.

By the way, did you hear Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday, claiming it was the Conservatives who were responsible for Britain’s growth in renewable power? The sheer brass neck of it, when that lot tried to stop us every step of the way! Never forget, Conference, that it was the Liberal Democrats with our foot on the accelerator of solar power. The Liberal Democrats who made Britain the world leader in offshore wind. And Liberal Democrats who led our renewables revolution while the Tories tried to stop us.

And there’s another historic, longstanding difference between the Liberal Democrat economic vision – and those of others. More relevant today than ever. I call it the elephant in the room of British politics. An elephant we always point to, even though other parties daren’t even whisper its name.

So let me shout it, yet again: if you want to boost our economy, you have to repair our broken relationship with Europe. Conference, you don’t need me to tell you what a disaster the Conservatives’ botched deal with Europe has been for our country. You see it every day in your communities: The businesses strangled by red tape. The farmers, fishers and factories, unable to sell to their customers on the continent. The empty shelves in local supermarkets. It’s why we campaigned against it. Why, when Boris Johnson brought his terrible deal to Parliament, when even Labour supported it, Liberal Democrats stood alone and voted against it.

And why now Liberal Democrats are the only ones with a real plan to fix Britain’s trade. To tear down the Conservatives’ trade barriers, rip up their red tape, and rebuild the ties of trust and friendship with our European neighbours. Because as liberals we are proud internationalists. Who understand that our country thrives most when it is open and outward-looking. When it stands tall in the world, instead of shrinking back from it. We understand that no nation – even one as resourceful and resilient as our great United Kingdom – no nation can afford to cut itself off. And we know that our country can be an incredible force for good when it plays an active role on the world stage –

Guided by our fundamental British values of equality, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It’s why our country has stood united in solidarity with the brave Ukrainian people in their struggle against Putin’s illegal invasion. I am so proud that throughout the last year we have been Ukraine’s strongest ally – And we must continue to stand with them, until Putin’s aggression is repelled for good.

Like the Covid pandemic before it, the war in Ukraine shows the folly of thinking that events outside of Britain’s borders simply aren’t our concern. Their enormous impacts on the everyday lives of the British people show what Liberal Democrats have always known: Foreign policy is not secondary to economic and social policy. Good, ethical foreign policy is good economic and social policy. That’s why we stand for human rights everywhere in the world – from Xinjiang to Tehran.

Why we work for peace everywhere in the world – from Kyiv to Kinshasa. Why we seek to end poverty and hunger everywhere in the world – from Delhi to Darfur. Why we oppose Suella Braverman’s appalling anti-refugee bill – nothing more than a criminal traffickers’ charter. And Conference, it’s why we Liberal Democrats increased the UK’s overseas aid to 0.7 percent of national income, and fought to enshrine that global promise into law. It was our party that fought for that law. Our party that introduced it. And our party that has always stood by it. Conference, that makes me so proud.

Our zero-point-seven commitment survived three Conservative Chancellors. But then along came Rishi Sunak. Ripping up that proud commitment for the UK to lead the world on aid for the poorest. How cruel. How counterproductive. How unpatriotic. So Liberal Democrats, we will restore it. We are the only party committed to restoring it. We will put the UK back where it belongs: Leading the fight against poverty, hunger and disease – everywhere in the world. These fights are never easy and rarely popular. But we must continue to fight them. Because if we don’t, who will? Conference, this is who we are.

We are the internationalists who take on the nationalists in England, Scotland and Wales. We are the champions of universal human rights, against those who seek to tear them up. We are the environmentalists who stand against those who don’t understand the value of our wonderful natural environment. Against those who refuse to face up to the existential threat of climate change. We are the people who support diversity as one of our country’s greatest strengths – and oppose those who stoke fear and division. We are the reformers – challenging the concentration of power in anyone’s hands. Reformers who will always seek to hand more power to people, and to hold the already powerful to account.

We are the party of hope over fear.

And – as Liberal Democrats have always been – we are the big thinkers with the vision to see past current crises and paint the future we want to build. So as we go out, confidently, into the communities we love – To campaign for our fantastic Liberal Democrat candidates, To elect strong local champions and fight for a fair deal – Let us remember why we are in this fight to begin with. As my dad said all those years ago, we are in this fight because of our dedication to public service. Because we love our country and want to transform it for the better.

To build a liberal Britain, and spread real opportunity to every city, town and village across our great United Kingdom. To deliver the fair deal that the British people deserve. Liberal Democrats, that is our mission. That is our calling. That is our fight. It’s a fight we can win. It’s a fight we must win. So let’s get out there, and win it.

The new year’s message made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, on 1 January 2023.

Happy New Year!

There’s a lot to look back on fondly in 2022.

The wonderful Jubilee street parties that brought communities together after so long kept apart by Covid.

The Lionesses brought football home at Wembley, and the men’s team put on a brilliant run at the World Cup too.

And another fantastic by-election victory for the Liberal Democrats!

But it has been a very difficult year too:

Vladimir Putin’s appalling war that has claimed the lives of thousands of brave Ukrainians.

Political chaos in the Conservative party, inflicting economic chaos on the rest of us.

And, of course, the very sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The end of a truly magnificent reign.

The New Year is an opportunity to turn the page and look ahead. And although things are tough for millions, I sense change is possible – so I look to the New Year with hope and optimism.

In 2023, we can look forward to a truly historic and joyful occasion for our family of nations: the coronation of our new King.

Another chance for people to come together and celebrate in our communities and – hopefully – under clear skies.

So for 2023, I wish you and your family all the best.

Let’s hope it’s a year of fresh starts – in more ways than one.

The comments made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, in the House of Commons on 13 December 2022.

Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and community in Solihull who have lost their young sons.

Some 97,000 people have been waiting for a decision on their asylum claim for six months or more. That is 97,000 people trapped for months in Home Office limbo, banned from working, while the NHS, social care, agriculture and hospitality are all desperately short of staff. Last month it was revealed that even the Home Office’s own analysis shows that the right to work does not act as a pull factor for asylum seekers, so will the Prime Minister end this absurd ban on work, to save taxpayers money and help to grow our economy?

The Prime Minister

The simple answer is no. We will not do that, nor will we grant blanket amnesties, as happened in the past, to get the backlog down. We will go through it methodically and properly. The best way to reduce the pressure on the backlog is to stop people coming here in the first place, and if the right hon. Gentleman is interested in doing that, he should support our new legislation.

The statement made by Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, on 23 November 2022.

People looking after their loved ones are doing a remarkable job, often in very difficult circumstances. This is something I know all too well, as a carer for most of my life – first for my mum, then for my gran, and now for my disabled son, John.

This year, we mark the theme of Caring Costs. It’s clear that Caring Costs in so many ways, whether it’s emotional or financial. Especially in light of the cost of living crisis.

Up and down the country, family carers are facing huge pressures. Soaring energy costs and fuel prices can make it difficult to undertake their caring responsibilities. At the same time, many carers are struggling to juggle paid work with their caring responsibilities. And Carer’s Allowance remains the lowest benefit of its kind, at just £69.70 a week.

But yet again, the Conservatives are completely ignoring family carers. They were left out of the £650 Cost of Living Payment  – and have even seen their support slashed by £207 this year, once soaring inflation is factored in.

Our carers deserve so much better than this. That’s why Liberal Democrats are calling on the Conservatives to extend their £650 Cost of Living Payment to all those on Carer’s Allowance. And we will keep campaigning to increase Carer’s Allowance by £1000 each year.

Carers and their loved ones desperately need extra support this winter. And Liberal Democrats will keep fighting for them.