The general election result vindicated Ed Davey’s ease with a blunt visual metaphor, but the party also needs to distinguish itself from Labour
About 10 days in to the election campaign, after Ed Davey clambered into a rubber ring to ride down a water slide in his swimming trunks, several fellow Liberal Democrat MPs quietly warned they might struggle to defend such stunts in interviews.
Ten days further on, after the Lib Dem leader jumped off a 150ft high platform at Eastbourne FC, shouting out to voters to “take a leap of faith” and vote for his party, any doubters had been thoroughly won round.
“Within moments of the bungee jump there was wall-to-wall media coverage,” says one party insider. “Ed was on the front page of the BBC website – with a picture of Keir Starmer giving some worthy speech tucked away at the bottom – and was all over the TV bulletins. It was incredible.”
As an election strategy, it was simple but hugely effective: combat the usual lack of attention for a smaller party with images of a wetsuit-clad or Zumba-dancing Davey, with each stunt linked the party’s core policy areas of the NHS and care, sewage, and the cost of living.
“In other elections, when we did get airtime we’d be asked about Labour or the Tories, or why we were so useless,” another party insider says. “This time we were asked about our policies.”
Going from 15 MPs to 72 was a dramatic vindication of the strategy, but as Davey closes a gleeful Lib Dem conference in Brighton, some in the party are wondering whether more of the same will work again.
One thing is clear: for now, the tight policy focus remains – as do the stunts. On Saturday, Davey arrived at Brighton marina on a jetski. Later in the conference he accepted a challenge to recite the names of all of his MPs while riding the rollercoaster on the city’s pier.
Some Lib Dems express private worry about this, wanting the party to focus also on areas that distinguish them from Labour, for example on Brexit and a suite of relatively radical tax policies in the election manifesto.
But, for now, Davey seems invulnerable, the beneficiary of an image revamp in which his team sought to highlight the empathy that comes with his role as a carer for his disabled teenage son, and his inherent sense of fun and mischief.
The election stunts are direct descendants of the camera-friendly visual metaphors the party began using to celebrate a series of byelection wins, such as Davey bursting a giant Tory-blue bubble, and lighting a giant cardboard cannon.
These emerged almost by accident when the party suddenly realised they were on course to win the hugely safe Tory seat of Chesham and Amersham, just outside London, in 2021.
A team of party aides hit on the image of Davey demolishing a “blue wall”, a plan so last-minute that the flatpack cardboard boxes were only assembled after the count, with a staffer sent to B&Q to find a yellow hammer.
Davey’s very visible enjoyment of these events led to an election brainstorming session in which staffers wrote down a list of 50 possible stunts, some of which were then crossed off as either too dangerous – wing-walking – or undignified.
There were still mishaps. Only a last-minute schedule change stopped Davey shooting arrows at an archery centre in Cambridgeshire while also outlining the party’s policy on bereavement payments. This ended up coinciding with the bungee jump – only a slight improvement.
“When we first came up with the strategy it was supposed to show Ed’s human side, how much fun he could be, as an antidote to some of the disillusionment with politicians,” says one senior aide. “But in the end it bought us airtime.”
Internal party polling found that the under-30s in Lib Dem target seats liked the stunts, while they also resonated with middle-aged voters, who enjoyed what one aide called “the centrist dad vibes”. Some older voters, however, were turned off by the antics, which they viewed as unserious.
But Davey’s team had a second act to come: a highly personal election broadcast that showed the Kingston and Surbiton MP at home with his son, John, and reminiscing about having cared as a child for his terminally ill mother. This was widely viewed and well received.
So what now? For one thing, Davey has 71 colleagues to keep busy, with a frontbench revamp expected soon. Newer MPs with smaller majorities will be encouraged to focus on their constituencies, while others will join select committees. Two of the most influential of these, health and the environment, are now chaired by Lib Dems.
The party’s leadership wants to be a “critical friend” to Labour, supporting the government on some of the big issues where there is broad agreement, but holding its feet to the fire when they need to, and keeping up the pressure in areas like social care reform.
At times, the mantra of constructive opposition to Labour will be a tricky balancing act. More MPs could also mean more moaning – one recurrent joke in Brighton has been Lib Dems saying that they can finally have some factions. But, the hope is, it will still be fun.
