Has Ed Davey found a compelling purpose?

Liberal Democrat MPs, councillors and members gathered in Brighton last week for their annual autumn conference. This time, the conference had a different feel – did you notice the lack of stunts or dad dancing to Chappell Roan?

Instead, it felt like the party had just gotten serious about the next election.

The Lib Dems have much to be happy about, with 72 MPs elected in 2024 – the most since the days of Liberal Prime Ministers Lloyd George and Asquith. However, those MPs have been getting more open about their malaise with the party’s direction.

Instead of being a launchpad onto grander aims, the 72 MPs have made little difference in the party’s national polling or its media coverage. In fact, the party’s polling position has marginally worsened to around 10-11%. Their success still depends on a vote highly concentrated around the South of England.

This conference was Ed Davey’s first opportunity to address some of his MPs’ concerns head on in front of the party members. Gone were the dodgy shades and dad dancing, and in was a serious – even angered – call to stop Reform entering Number 10.

Instead, Davey set out his belief that the party is now in the “fight of its life” against Reform UK, with broad unease among conference delegates about the impact of Reform’s £72 million warchest. He compared protests in Dover and Portsmouth with far right political movements of the past, naming Moseley and Nick Griffin, and declared it is the Liberal Democrats’ moral duty to stop the same “dark forces” of 2026.

It was a stark call to arms for the self-described party of Middle England.

Alongside this strategic mission to stop Reform, the Lib Dems also made a much more developed pitch on economic growth, chiefly with Ed Davey’s call to raise the personal allowance to £15,000 a year (a major tax cut) and his refusal to rule out drilling for gas at Jackdaw, alongside a new policy paper for growth unveiled by Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper.

Cratus Group was fortunate to host Cooper as the headline speaker at our annual conference reception, co-hosted with Lib Dems for Growth. At the reception, Cooper spoke about ‘tearing down the barriers’ to growth to build the energy grid and reservoirs the country needs. A marked change for a party known to have blocked that infrastructure in local areas where it is in charge.

After recent press coverage of disquiet in the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party and campaigners in urban areas, this was a crucial conference for Davey and his team to get right. They will now be looking back on a successful weekend from which he emerges with a stronger, clearer narrative.

However, the undercurrent of sharp elbows between leadership hopefuls is still clear. Among them, Cooper is a clear winner from Brighton.