What was striking about our interview with Sir Ed Davey on Monday is the extent to which Nigel Farage is living rent-free in the Liberal Democrat leader’s head.
He kicked off our interview warning of that in Donald Trump’s America, people are “really fearful for democracy” and that the Reform UK leader, Mr Farage, is intent on mimicking those politics here: “I think he wants Britain to be like Trump’s America”.
In some ways, Sir Ed’s attacks on Reform and Mr Farage make little sense, because as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, it is the Conservatives that would typically be where the competition lies. In the last general election, 58 of the Lib Dem’s 60 seat gains came from the Tories.
But in another way, the Lib Dem leader is giving an insight into how the battle in British politics is shaping up: Reform versus – in the words of Sir Ed – the “mainstream”, as he seeks to cast Mr Farage as a right-wing populist, importing Trump’s values to Britain.
The logic of this is clear: While Reform and the Lib Dems are not typically fishing in the same pool of voters, there are gains to be made for Sir Ed’s party by taking such a strong position against Reform, while also hooking Mr Farage to President Trump.
Lib Dem insiders tell me this strategy helps them kick on against the Tories in the Conservative heartlands that dislike Trump, while criticism of the US president and his sidekick Elon Musk also appeals to Labour voters who don’t much like Sir Keir Starmer’s kowtowing to Trump.
“It is obvious, is it not, that mainstream politicians of all the mainstream parties don’t want to undermine our democracy, don’t want to take it in the direction of Trump’s America like Nigel Farage,” Ed Davey told me in our interview on Sky News.
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“People look at Trump’s America and what he’s doing to it and are really fearful for democracy, for people’s rights as well as for basic services like the health service, like the economy, Trump’s doing a really bad job.
“But unfortunately, in our country, we’re seeing politicians who want to mimic that, particularly people like Nigel Farage.”
But for all the criticism Sir Ed levelled against Reform, and its leader, he can’t match Mr Farage when it comes to polling.
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The Lib Dems have failed to make any progress since the general election as the public continues to turn away from the traditional big two – Labour and the Conservatives.
Reform seems to be hoovering up voters’ disillusionment, with support for the party growing from 14% at the general election to around 29% now, while the Lib Dems have nudged up just 3 percentage points to 15%.
After a rather muted year since the general election, and under growing criticism that the Lib Dems aren’t cutting through, Sir Ed wants to take the fight to Reform and is becoming more vocal about this endeavour.
Just as Sir Keir Starmer has warned in recent days that Britain is in the “fight of our times” between “patriotic renewal, and decline and toxic division”, so Sir Ed is clear he has a “moral duty” to keep Reform out of power.
We are seeing how the contours of British politics are shaping up as Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens all up the attacks on Reform, each for their own reasons, but each with the same effect of pitting progressive politics against what they dub Reform’s right-wing populism.
It is telling that Sir Ed was crystal clear in our interview today that he would never do any deal with Mr Farage, while refusing to rule out doing something with Labour to keep the Reform leader out of power, because while an election is a long way out, the dividing lines are becoming clearer between Reform’s way of doing politics versus those politicians who stand for “progressive” Britain.
Sir Ed may be known for his stunts, but at this conference, he’s delivering a serious message – with hints at a more collective endeavour to try to turn the tide on Reform’s surge.
