Jet-skiing into Brighton Marina on Saturday, playing volleyball on the beach on Sunday, and mini-golfing on Monday, the Liberal Democrats used their party conference to continue where they left off during the general election campaign.
Amongst the fun-filled agenda, the party aimed to portray a serious message that they are the real opposition to the new Labour government, particularly on issues like the NHS, social care, and the environment.
They chose a great weekend and perfect location for their stunt-filled conference, the weather in Brighton remaining warm and sunny throughout; fitting for a party who firmly believe their fortunes are on the up. There was rarely a speech where “72 MPs” wasn’t mentioned, and there was a real sense of optimism and hope that the party could press on, defeat the Tories and soon become the official opposition to Labour.
After hopping off his jet-ski and getting changed out of his wetsuit, party leader Ed Davey told journalists that he wants the Lib Dems to be a “much better than the Conservatives” and promised that voters would hear “much more” from them after their election success.
In his Sunday Q&A session, he told party members that “we’ve knocked down a lot of the blue wall [former Tory seats], and we’re gonna knock down the rest of it”. Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper told journalists in the media room that the Lib Dems will continue to highlight the Tory’s NHS record and remind the public why they lost so badly on July 4th. She further suggested that the Conservative party actively threatens liberalism itself, citing internationalism, environmentalism and equality as the values at risk.
This inevitably drew questions of whether the Lib Dems were more focused on opposing the Conservative opposition than the new Labour government, which Cooper denied, arguing that her party wants to help clean up the mess left by the Tories by pointing out Labour mistakes.
Health and social care were the primary focuses of the conference, with the party calling on Labour to grant emergency funding for the NHS in this October’s Autumn Budget. Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed last week that the NHS would receive “no more money without reform”. The Lib Dem position is that investment and reform should come simultaneously, with Daisy Cooper calling the state of UK hospitals “terrible” and promising that her party would pressure Labour to “fix our crumbling hospitals and to end the crisis in social care”.
In her conference speech, Cooper shared a personal story about her experience in the NHS, telling members that doctors told her that, without major surgery, she only had 4 days left to live. She was further told that her Crohn’s disease may not allow her to work ever again. Eventually making a full recovery, Cooper said the NHS both saved her life and “gave me life back”, but feared that someone going through the same experience today may not be so lucky. She said the Tories brought the NHS “to its knees” and vowed to hold Labour’s “feet to the fire” if they failed to address the problem effectively.
Ed Davey’s speech served as the finale event for the party conference, and he maintained the up-beat mood, thanking members, volunteers, councillors and candidates for their efforts over the election campaign. Maintaining the party’s focus on the NHS, he called on Labour to establish a new ‘Winterproof NHS taskforce’, which he said could “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”. He said that every year governments announce “hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis” and argued that instead of “just plugging the gaps” the government should invest now to “make the NHS winterproof”.
Davey vowed to hold Labour to account “for the promises they made to clear up the Conservatives’ mess” and to “champion practical, hopeful solutions for a better future”. His speech encapsulated the overall conference message that, going forward, the Lib Dems would point out Conservative failings, and scrutinise Labour’s plans carefully, attempting to offer hope against Starmer’s “doom and gloom”.
