Ed Davey

Ed Davey has spent his political career trying to keep the Liberal Democrats alive in a country that periodically forgets they exist. First elected in 1997, he is one of the longer-serving figures in his party and one of the few to have survived the 2015 wipeout that nearly ended Lib Dem parliamentary politics entirely.

The coalition years are the heaviest part of his record. As Energy Secretary he sat inside a Conservative-led government during a period that did the party lasting electoral damage. Tuition fees, welfare reform, austerity. Nick Clegg absorbed most of the public anger as leader, but Davey was part of the same machine. Younger voters who would otherwise be open to centrist liberal politics have not forgotten.

His policy record in office is more defensible than the public memory of it. He oversaw the early development of offshore wind procurement and shaped contracts that have since underwritten a large share of UK renewable capacity. Whether that counts as a partial alibi for the coalition years depends on which voters you ask.

Davey rebuilt the party slowly after 2015. The 2024 election delivered the Liberal Democrats their best parliamentary result for almost a century, mostly by targeting affluent southern seats where Conservative voters had stopped trusting the Conservatives. The strategy worked because it was disciplined, not because it was inspiring.

His public persona has been the source of recurring criticism. Davey is calm, technically competent, decent in manner, and generally unable to dominate a media cycle. To compensate, the party has run him through publicity stunts during election campaigns. The paddleboarding, the rollercoasters, the bungee jumps. Supporters argued these made him relatable. Critics argued they showed a politician without the stature to be taken seriously by other means. Both readings are defensible.

The wider Lib Dem problem under his leadership is harder to dismiss. The party has become tactically effective and ideologically vague. Its 2024 advance was driven by being acceptably moderate to people who had stopped being Conservative, rather than by any clear national argument about what Britain should look like. Davey did not invent that problem and probably could not have solved it on his own, but it is the structural ceiling on what his leadership can deliver.

He has been more visible and more personally sympathetic on social-care issues than most senior politicians, partly because of his own experience as a carer. That has given the party a recognisable cause attached to a recognisable face, which is more than most third-party leaders manage. Whether that translates into a serious post-coalition Liberal Democrat programme, or whether the party stays where it is as a tactical home for tactical voters, will depend on whoever follows him.