A senior Liberal Democrat MP is seeking to oust Sir Ed Davey as leader after months of frustration over the centre-left party’s lack of momentum.
Charlie Maynard, an MP and a Treasury spokesperson for the party, resigned early on Friday in a bid to oust Davey, people familiar with the situation said. He has asked other MPs to back him in a vote of no confidence against the leader.
Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, told the FT that the “vast majority” of the party’s MPs were “furious at this distraction” and wanted Davey to stay as leader.
“We Liberal Democrats are the last line of defence against a Reform UK government and Ed is determined to lead a strong and united party into the next general election,” she said.
Davey has led the party for six years, and won its biggest ever number of MPs at the 2024 election. But he has been criticised for failing to move beyond colourful stunts, with the party having fallen to fifth place in opinion polls behind the insurgent Greens.
The FT was unable to reach Maynard for comment at lunchtime on Friday.
Maynard has become a prominent figure for his campaign against Thames Water’s management over the utility’s poor financial management and environmental record.
Davey thanked Maynard for his service in the Treasury team as the party drew up what he dubbed “the most pro-European policy in British politics” to rejoin the single market and a new customs union, according to officials.
His resignation comes just four days after another Lib Dem frontbencher, Alison Bennett, stood down from the role as care and carers spokesperson.
The Lib Dems have 71 MPs, including many in former Tory seats in south-east England. But the party has struggled for attention compared to the more radical Greens and Reform UK, both of which have fewer MPs.
Any move is likely to come to a head next week when MPs return to Westminster following a recess for party conference. The Lib Dem parliamentary party is due to hold its regular meeting on Tuesday.
In a bid to ease frustrations, Sir Ed used his conference speech last month to try to reinvigorate his party with promises of £17bn in tax cuts and a cost-of-living focus.
He outlined plans to increase the tax-free personal allowance threshold to £15,000 and raise the higher-rate income tax threshold from £50,271 to £56,000.
Both tax cuts would be funded by the “dividends of growth” from rejoining the EU’s single market and customs union, Davey said, and would come into effect by 2034 if his party were elected.
However, the moves have done little to calm the mood among some of Davey’s MPs, many of whom grew frustrated following underwhelming English local election results in May.
The party gained 152 council seats but failed to make progress in key target areas such as Merton in south-west London.
The Lib Dems are currently polling at 9.9 per cent nationally, according to the FT’s poll tracker.
Posted by Desperate_Wear_1866
4 Comments
!ping UK
Not sure that’s a good idea
They still need Tory voters to get up to 100+ seats
And i would love to be king of Lichtenstein
I think that’s a pretty fair move. The Lib Dem polling under Davey’s tenure looks like this:
https://preview.redd.it/3q1xn1jqdguh1.png?width=1108&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac861d5fdb7b8a7e49a847cfc950dcf951b4c416
The party is not really any better off than it was when he started as leader and it has never achieved any real cut-through other than a slight bump when Starmer was alienating every voter in the country. He is the political equivalent of an afterthought, bumping along in total irrelevancy. I cannot really name one significant issue where the Liberal Democrats have set the topic of the day or even mildly pressured the incumbent government in that entire period. At times they have been relegated to fifth party status.
Any change in their seat share over the period is basically entirely down to the vicissitudes of the other parties. The Liberal Democrats are mere political passengers.