Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey has hinted that he would be open to a pact with the Conservatives after the next General Election, though would deem it morally unacceptable to govern with Reform. The Telegraph has more.
The Liberal Democrat Leader explicitly ruled out a deal with the Tories before the last General Election, with his party going on to gain dozens of their previously safe seats.
However, Sir Ed has now opened the door to working with both Kemi Badenoch’s party and Andy Burnham’s Labour after the next national poll, saying he wants to be in government.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I maybe agree with Kemi that it looks like there’s going to be a hung Parliament.
“If there is, I would say I’m the party leader with most experience of how you manage that sort of situation for our country. And I want my party to be in government.”
A major poll published by Survation on Thursday suggested that the next General Election would result in a hung parliament, with Reform UK as the largest party ahead of Labour.
Asked whether he was happy to work with anyone in a future coalition, Sir Ed ruled out a pact with Reform UK.
“I think it would be odd, wouldn’t it, if having fought Reform as hard as we do and [saying] it’s a moral responsibility to beat Reform, that we would do a deal – we won’t do that,” he said.
“And you know, I have some huge problems with policies in all the other parties, frankly. That’s why I want more Liberal Democrats.”
Pressed on whether he would talk to anyone other than Reform, he said: “You’re taking the usual, very well-informed political journalist approach of trying to whittle it down and I’m going to respond to you – what I’m doing is putting forward Liberal Democrat ideas.”
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “Ed Davey finally exposes the truth. If you vote Tory, you will get open borders with the Lib Dems.
“Reform UK is the only real opposition to more of the same from the uni-party.”
The Liberal Democrats formed a coalition with the Conservatives in Lord Cameron’s government from 2010 to 2015.
Sir Ed campaigned heavily against Rishi Sunak and the Tories before the 2024 election. Asked whether he would enter a coalition with the Conservatives on Sunak’s watch, Sir Ed said: “No. I’ve spent all my life fighting the Conservatives.
“When I became leader of the party, I made it very clear that my job was to get the Conservatives out of government.”
However, the rapid rise of Reform in the past two years appears to have changed his thinking while altering the realities of British politics.
Worth reading in full.
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Libdems willing to go into a coalition with most any other party? This isn’t news. They have always been willing to get into bed with other losers in order to get a seat at the table. No principles, just a quest for power at any price.
It is to be hoped sufficient numbers of voters find his self-serving proposals morally repugnant and most definitely against the best interests of the country.
Oh.My.God.
Yeah but grifters gotta grift and shhh, don’t mention the Post Office
His desperation for someone to take him seriousy will not be enhanced by this.
For “I just want to be in government” I read “I just want power”!
At least he’s being honest.
“I just want power” perfectly sums up Clegg and every PM we’ve had since Blair.
Imo Blair had a genuine vision of how he wanted the country to be i.e. controlled by globalist, subservient to supranational organisations and governed by technocrats. It’s a shame his vision was the complete opposite of what the country needs and has been followed, with a few minor deviations by every PM since Blair.
Well maybe this will knock a couple points support of the Consocialists, but I doubt it.
If Kemi Badenoch deems it morally acceptable to govern with the Lib Dems, she is toast.
The conceit of the self-righteous.
So it is morally unacceptable for the plurality of the people who support Reform UK to be governed they way they want. Ed will tell us how we shall be governed and we shall like it.
It sounds a lot like tyranny Ed.
It assumes the Faux Conservatives and the Lib Dumbs could scrape together enough voters/seats to be a majority
Ed Davey wants to be part of Government with only 12% of the vote last time out. Not keen on democracy then.
The very fact that Ed Davey contemplates joining up with the Conservatives, demonstrates that there are a great many similarities still between the two, which is exactly why the Conservatives are still not changed as a Party, they are still soft Left with progressive leanings.Kemi needs to wise up the only way the Conservatives stand a chance is to work with Reform and carve up the country between them. I have zero affaction for the Conservatives, but in order to stop a Labour, Lib dem, Green coalition, they need to work out.
–“Gasp! What’s that horrible creature looming out of the mist?”
–(screams heard from the public…)
–“Oh don’t worry, it’s only The Brigadoon Party the fishermen told me about. It appears just before an election, then disappears until the next one, unless someone tempts it out again. Look! There’s a Nigerian waving a fish at it!”
Will Badenoch say that the idea of a coalition with the Lib Dems is monstrous, as she said a coalition with Reform would be? A proper journalist would ask her exactly this question. I think we know what the answer would be, and it would be even clearer where she and her party really stand.
They will fit together like peas in a pod, just like Dave and Nick. Post election deals are the antithesis of democracy which is why politicians like the idea of no overall majority.
Leaders (sic) get to make policy without regard to voters, members or colleagues and they are wholly unaccountable because they can blame their coalition partners.
All very much like EU politics.
It would become the norm under PR voting.
I have been wondering, what exactly is it that is so good about the way that the UK is being governed and directed that makes the prospect of a Reform government so abhorrent. The answer of course is that we are being run by organised crime, a mafia. Shadowy people, promoting those in the glare of the spotlight, and all filling their boots with lovely taxpayer money.
That group is not so shadowy, it is the political class. Or self-regarding political elite, if you prefer. The Uniparty.
Entirely predictable. I guess the Tories would probably not go into a coalition with Labour as it would be too obvious, though anything is possible if they get desperate. I think a Green-SNP-PC-Alliance-Labour coalition is the most likely though.
That really is a disturbing prospect.
As long as britain was reasonably prosperous people could afford mess around with these jokw candidates.
Britain is no longer a prosperous country. The electorate need to get a grip.
Anything other than a centre right government presumably reform, and we won’t get another chance to salvage anything, except possibly through extreme violence.
A coalition of clowns or federation of fuckwitts.
Scum. They should have deleted themselves years ago.