Tories ‘lost touch’ with values, says Ed Davey at local election campaign launch

Sir Ed Davey has accused the Conservatives of “moving away” from their values as he launched the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign in Oxfordshire.

Appearing on Monday at an event at a golf club near Henley, Sir Ed declared the local elections “a two-horse race” as he sought to position the Lib Dems as “the party of Middle England”.

Illustrating his point, he rode a hobby horse over a series of jumps before smashing through a blue fence, vowing to do the same to the Tories on May 1.

We’re getting lots of people who used to vote Conservative and people who used to vote Labour coming to us, so I think it’s a broad appeal

Speaking to reporters, Sir Ed denied recasting the Lib Dems as “soft Tories”, saying: “We’re true to our values, it’s the Conservatives who are moving away from theirs.”

He added: “On the doorstep, we’re getting lots of people who used to vote Conservative and people who used to vote Labour coming to us, so I think it’s a broad appeal.

“But there’s no doubt that I think a lot of lifelong Conservatives feel the Conservative Party has left them and the Conservative Party’s chasing after Reform’s tail, going to the right, and don’t seem to value the community in the way that they used to.”

He added: “I think they’ve sort of lost touch.”

Sir Ed and his party hope to capitalise on discontent with Labour and what they see as lingering distrust of the Tories to become the second-largest party in local government.

They will need to pick up votes in areas such as the Home Counties, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire, where last year’s general election saw five Lib Dem MPs returned to Westminster, the party’s best result in the county for decades.

But Sir Ed insisted his party could appeal to Conservative and Labour voters, saying he hoped to win the new Hull and East Yorkshire mayoralty which is also up for election on May 1.

The Lib Dem election launch followed similar events by the Tories and Reform.

Kemi Badenoch pledged “lower taxes and better services” as she launched the Tories’ local campaign, but warned the party faces an “extremely difficult” time in the polls.

Nigel Farage, at Reform’s launch on Friday night, claimed his party would strip away wasteful local spending, as he portrayed the local election as a springboard for future parliamentary wins.