Ed Davey's speech to Liberal Democrat Conference

Hello friends! Thank you everyone for such a great Conference. It’s been really joyful, hasn’t it?

Getting together to celebrate, and to start planning the future.  Having fun, but with a serious focus. It reminds me of our election campaign.

Do you know they wanted me to wear a wetsuit today? But I said it was abseiling or nothing… So here we are!

Having a party, after winning our largest number of MPs for over 100 years! The best result in our modern party’s history. 72 Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons, fighting for the freer, fairer, more open society we all want to build. And conference, how fitting it was that the final seat to declare – number 72 – was the home of one of the great champions of that more liberal society: Our dear friend Charles Kennedy.

Today I want to talk about the exciting opportunity our new strength gives us – and the responsibility it places on us too. But before I get to that serious bit – I want to say thank you.

To all of you. Members. Volunteers. Councillors. Candidates. You are all absolutely fantastic. Everybody played a part in electing our 72 Members of Parliament. Our largest number of MPs for over one hundred years.

Friends, in my 35 years as a Liberal Democrat member, I’ve never seen our party – all of us – work so well together. With such discipline. Such focus. Such unity of purpose. So I want to thank every one of you. Please applaud yourselves.

And I want you to thank a few more people who often don’t get thanked – but really should. Starting with our amazing staff team. Policy, communications, compliance, HR, standards, events, membership, fundraising, finance. Our whole parliamentary staff team. And our incredible campaigns team, led by the brilliant Dave McCobb.

And let me shine a spotlight on a second group of people whose contribution to our success isn’t recognised as much as it should be. I’m talking about all those candidates and all those local parties who set aside their own ambitions to go and help colleagues in target seats. The candidates who didn’t win.

As scripture tells us, in the Book of McCobb, chapter 2, verse 7: “Greater love hath no candidate than this, that they and their team go canvassing in a nearby target seat.” So bless you. And thank you to all of you. Thank you 72 times!

Finally I want to thank one more person…Someone from behind the scenes. Who makes the real sacrifices. Who’s helped me beyond measure. Emily – my wonderful wife.

Emily really ought to be an MP, you know. She stood four times – and missed out by just over 2,000 votes in 2005. And she’s an amazing local councillor now – amongst other things.

On Question Time during the election, I confessed that Emily and I are romance personified – meeting as we did on a Liberal Democrat Housing Policy Working Group – catching each other’s eye as we debated the finer points of community land auctions. And since my revelation, I’m told our Federal Policy Committee has been inundated with applications for the next one!

Don’t join Tinder. Join the Liberal Democrats!

As we rejoice today at our success – and look towards a brighter future – I think it’s important that we first reflect a little. Reflect on where we’ve come from and how we’ve got here.

It’s four years since I first spoke to you as Leader of our party – but it might as well have been a lifetime ago. Back then I wasn’t even able to talk to you from a stage like this, But rather through a single camera from an empty room in Lib Dem HQ.

The country was deep in the grip of Covid. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings – remember them? – well they were still in Number 10. And still on speaking terms.

The most popular politician in the land was an ambitious young Chancellor by the name of Rishi Sunak. Like I say, it was a very different time.

And it was a very tough time for our party. We were still licking our wounds from an extremely disappointing general election result. Our third in a row.

Some were asking not whether our party could recover, but whether we would survive. And it’s important we remember that – as we celebrate, and as we plan for the future.

Because we mustn’t forget the hard lessons we learnt along the way. Above all, we learnt how critical it is to listen to our constituents. Hear the people. Understand their problems. Know their priorities.

Our liberal tradition of gritty, community politics used to be so great at that – at listening. But somehow it had got lost or undervalued. So we – along with all the other parties – lost people’s trust. And it’s been a long road to rebuild it.

It started in Chesham and Amersham. With Sarah Green’s shockwave victory and the first brick out of the Blue Wall. Then it was Helen in Shropshire. Richard in Devon. Sarah in Somerset.  And above all, for me, our amazing local election results. Over 700 more of us – elected to local councils. 

Hundreds of new local champions – listening to our communities and working hard for them. Friends, local government and community politics have always been the bedrock of our party. They’ve been the bedrock of our recovery and they will be the bedrock of even greater success to come.

For it’s in our communities, door-to-door, where we can truly hear what people are worried about. And where we can rebuild trust. Trust. The single most powerful commodity in a democracy. Humbling and hard-won.

In July, millions of voters put their trust in us – many of them for the first time in their lives. Trusting us to stand up for them. To be their local champions. To fight for a fair deal.

That trust – the people’s trust – is our mandate. And now we must be true to that mandate and repay that trust in full. Remember, people’s trust isn’t something you just win and put in the bank, to make a withdrawal at the next election. Trust is something you have to keep winning, keep earning, day after day after day. Or else people will just take it somewhere else.

We asked people for their votes on a very clear manifesto. We told them we would focus on their priorities: Getting our economy back on track and getting the cost of living under control. Ending the sewage scandal and protecting our precious environment. And above all: fixing the NHS and care crisis.

A clear message of hope. Delivered so powerfully in the millions of leaflets you pushed through letterboxes. Argued for so passionately in the hundreds of thousands of conversations you had on doorsteps. And yes, amplified by the occasional sight of me falling off a paddleboard or jumping off a 160 foot crane. 

Now I’m not supposed to tell you what stunt ideas were rejected – not least because they’re still trying to persuade me to do them at the next election. But I’ll let you into a little secret. It was only health and safety rules that stopped me putting my hand up a cow’s behind or wing walking on a biplane.

But friends, however we were campaigning – and wherever we were campaigning – we always had our clear Liberal Democrat message that showed we’d listened and we’d understood people’s concerns. So, as we plan future success for our party and our country – to build ever stronger on the dramatic success we’ve just achieved – let us never forget where we were and how we got here.

And let’s begin by ensuring our clear campaign message is now our clear mandate for action. Starting with the issue we put front and centre of our campaign: Health and care.

There’s not a place I’ve been to in the country where these are not the top issues on people’s lips. After years of failure and neglect under the Conservative Party – and the Nationalists in Scotland, and Labour in Wales – it’s not hard to see why. And it’s so sad.

We cherish the NHS. It’s one of the things that makes us proudest to be British. One of the things that makes us proud to be liberals. Because don't let anyone forget that it was a Liberal – William Beveridge – who invented the NHS. And we are indebted to the incredible staff who keep it going in the most difficult circumstances and under the most intense pressures.

But with such long waiting lists, so many staff vacancies, and so many hospitals literally crumbling, the NHS simply isn’t working the way it used to – or the way it should. We need to transform the way we do health and care in this country.

And our MPs have already taken the lead on that in this new Parliament. There’s a reason Wes Streeting calls us his 72 new pen pals.

Because from the second each of our MPs entered Parliament they were on the case – Speaking up for all those people who’ve watched their loved ones waiting hours in pain and distress for an ambulance to arrive. And patients waiting weeks just to see their GP, while their illness got worse and worse. Parents searching in vain for an NHS dentist for their kids. And cancer patients waiting months or even years to start treatment.

The Conservative Party left office with almost 6.5 million people languishing on hospital waiting lists. That’s one in every nine people in England. A single, astonishing statistic that encapsulates an appalling legacy of failure from the last Conservative Government. And a disaster for our society and our economy.

Just imagine how much better things would be now if those 6.5 million people had already had the operation or treatment they need, and been able to get on with their lives. Just imagine how many people would now be back at work, earning a decent living and boosting our economy. Just imagine how much pain, stress and anxiety families would have been saved from. And how much more free they would feel as a result. That is, after all, why the NHS is so important to us as liberals. And why we remain the biggest champions for our NHS. 

Now, we know that fixing the NHS will not be easy. The Conservative Government broke it so badly, over so many years, that it will take a lot of work to put it back together. But we also know that it must be done. And we know it can be done.

We can offer people hope on health. Starting with a whole new focus on community services – helping people to get care more quickly and more locally – with more GPs, more NHS dentists and more community pharmacists. So fewer people end up in hospital in the first place.

Of course that will need more upfront investment… And we know the terrible state of the public finances – thanks to the Conservatives’ shocking mismanagement. There can be no doubt about the scale of the challenge ahead.

But that makes it even more important to make the investments we’ve proposed in frontline NHS services – not less. Because if you invest wisely – If you make sure people can get the care they need, when and where they need it – If you bring down waiting lists and get people back to work – If you help people to stay healthy for longer – Not only will you dramatically improve people’s lives, but you will actually save taxpayers’ money in the future. And give the economy the boost it needs.

The problem is, the Treasury simply isn’t wired to think this way. Instead, we have the short-term negative thinking that leads Governments to postpone hospital repairs and cancel new buildings. Short-term thinking to save a bit of money now – even though you know it will only cost a lot more in the future.

Practically every year I can remember, Governments have ended up announcing hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis. To paper over the cracks. What if – instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, instead of throwing more and more money at just plugging the gaps – what if we invested now to make the NHS winterproof? The Government could and should make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS.

So I urge Labour: do not make the same mistakes the Conservative Party did. Be more positive. Act now. Show the ambition and urgency this moment demands – and save our NHS for good. 

But transforming our NHS is just one part of tackling the health and care crisis. The other part – as we all know – is care. And we know we won’t save the NHS, if we don’t sort out care.

Now, as you know, care has always been a big part of my life – and we’ve talked about it before. First my life as a young carer. Looking after my mum as a teenager. Giving her morphine to help ease the pain of her bone cancer. Helping her give herself electric shocks when the pain got really bad. Getting incredibly close to mum over her three years battling her cancer. Dealing with the enormous hole when she finally left.

Then caring for my wonderful Nanna. My grandmother. Who’d taken such good care of me, after my mum and dad had both died.

And now Emily and I, caring for our wonderful, smiley sixteen-year-old son John. With his challenges from his severe disabilities. You saw in that video just a little glimpse of the joy John brings to our lives. The fun we have together. Even at five-thirty in the morning, when he shouts “Daddy!” to wake me up, it’s a blessing – given he was nine years old, when he was first able to say “Daddy”.

But alongside the fun and the blessings, I have to tell you, caring for your family can be tough. Just dealing with whatever comes each day. Making plans that too often fall through. As millions of people across our country know, a carer’s life is often exhausting.

And you know, each time I speak about my story, I’m humbled by the number of people who get in touch to say “that’s my story too”. But I confess I wasn’t prepared for so many incredible, heartfelt responses to that election broadcast. People of all walks of life, of all political parties and none.

Like the couple whose adult son has similar care needs to John. Who kindly reached out to say that they know how it feels – especially the worry you have about what’s going to happen after you’re gone. Just like Emily and I worry about John. No one will ever hold him the way we hold him. No one will ever love him the way we love him. I guess it’s an anxiety for all parents. What happens when you’re gone? But it’s so intense when your child will be vulnerable, all their life.

And then there are the young carers who’ve contacted me. Like fifteen-year-old Joseph, who’s been looking after his mum who has MS, since he was five. Joseph told me caring for his mum is the “toughest but most rewarding feeling”. He told me he’s “never really had his opportunity to be heard”. He says – “Not to get the sympathy card, but to make people feel less alone, because I know so truly how that feels.” Joseph wrote to me: “I wanted you to know that people like yourself are everywhere… Quiet and silenced but we are still here.”

That’s why I’ve been telling my story.  For Joseph. For those parents. For the millions of carers whose voices have been “quiet and silenced”. Because care and carers must not be forgotten and ignored any longer.

Friends, politics has lost its way when it forgets so many people. When all it does is try to divide us. Look for the worst in people. I want us to be different. For the way we do politics to reflect the true nature of the British people. 

The true nature of our great United Kingdom: a caring nation. It’s like Emily said so powerfully during the election: “What you’ve got to have is a caring community, a caring society. That’s our best hope for the future.” And friends, if the Liberal Democrats don’t offer that hope – if we don’t speak up for care in Parliament – no one else will.

Of course, everyone knows the Conservatives don’t care. But did you know, carers weren’t mentioned once in Labour’s election manifesto. And carers weren’t mentioned once in the King’s Speech either. 

But carers did feature in Keir Starmer’s first Prime Minister’s Questions. Because I made sure they would.

By telling him about Andrea, a carer in my constituency, who’s been hit with a bill from the Department for Work and Pensions for more than £4,000.  Andrea’s one of tens of thousands of carers, who were caught up in the Carer’s Allowance repayments scandal under the Conservative Government. I urged Keir Starmer to sort it out, and I repeat that call today. Prime Minister: if you are willing to find a solution, I am ready and willing to work with you and get it done. For carers.

This, friends, is the role all our 72 MPs will play in this Parliament. Using our strength – as not only once again the third party in the House of Commons but also the largest third party in a century – To be the responsible opposition to this Government.

And to speak up for people in our communities – taken for granted and ignored by the others. Telling Ministers directly about the problems real people are facing. Raising the issues that would otherwise go unnoticed in the Government’s blindspots. Holding Labour to account for the promises they made to clear up the Conservatives’ mess. Championing practical, hopeful solutions for a better future.

Not just on health and care, but the cost of living, sewage, nature and the climate. The crisis in our justice system: Prisons bursting at the seams. Criminals walking free. Victims denied justice. And the pressing need to fix our broken relationship with Europe. To get a better deal for Britain, and put us on the road back to the single market. Including – yes – a youth mobility scheme, to boost British businesses and give our young people the freedom to travel and work across Europe.

From growing our economy, to fixing our NHS, to reforming our politics – We will urge the Government to act faster and be much bolder. Because the challenges we face cannot be solved by burying our heads in the sand and pretending they don’t exist – like the Conservatives do. But nor can they be solved with the pessimism and defeatism we’re hearing from Labour.

They will be solved the way Britain has always done in the past, by rising to our challenges with guts, determination, and hope. So we will cut through the Government’s doom and gloom with our ambition for our country. We will scrutinise their plans carefully, and strive to improve them.

And we will oppose them if we think they’ve got it wrong – Like their decision to strip the Winter Fuel Payment from millions of struggling pensioners, just when energy bills are set to rise again this winter.

But where Ministers act in the national interest – to solve such problems and improve people’s lives – we will support them. Back when I was first elected in 1997, Paddy Ashdown adapted the Serenity Prayer for a better, more constructive approach to opposition. Paddy’s Serenity Prayer went like this: “May we have the power to oppose what we must oppose. Courage to support what we must support. And the wisdom to know the difference.”

Conference, wouldn’t we all have loved Paddy to be here today for this moment? And I want to make Paddy’s same invocation for us today. For that is the power, the courage and the wisdom we will need in the years ahead.

Because it will fall to us to be the responsible opposition that any government needs. An essential role in our democracy. And a role that today’s Conservative Party simply cannot fulfil. They showed themselves to be totally unfit to govern our country – and the British people rightly booted them out. And the Conservatives are already showing that they are unfit for opposition too.

It’s hardly surprising I suppose. Expecting that lot to hold the Government to account on the NHS or the economy would be like putting a bull in charge of repairing the china shop. I mean, who would leave the job of upholding ethical standards in government to the gang who put Boris Johnson in Number 10?

And when the country needs an Opposition to scrutinise next month’s Budget, it’s not a job for the Tory geniuses who cheered Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to the rafters, is it? Just look at the quartet heading to Birmingham in a fortnight to audition for the job of Conservative leader.

They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel with these new TV reality shows, aren’t they? I hear they’re planning to call it “Strictly Come Pandering”. Or maybe “The Great British Blame Off”. Or maybe just: “Pointless”.

Isn’t it funny how – after years sitting round the Cabinet table – these four suddenly think they have the solutions to our country’s big challenges?  If only they’d thought of those answers just a few months sooner!

Conference, the truth is this. In Government, these four Conservatives didn’t care about real people’s everyday problems. And it’s clear none of them care about you now.

The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of their former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people – That it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics. We can’t let them back – after all the damage they’ve done to our great country. We can’t let them off the hook – after the chaos and misery they’ve caused.

Friends, our job is to consign the Conservative Party to the history books. 

To be fair – we made a pretty good start in July! Winning an incredible 60 seats from them – including places that had elected only Conservative MPs for generations.

We said we would bring the Blue Wall tumbling down. And we did. We did it by speaking to millions of lifelong Conservative voters, who felt let down and taken for granted by today’s Conservative Party. Voters who believe in the fundamental British values of fairness, decency, freedom, and respect for the rule of law – And who no longer see those values reflected in the party of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – But who found those values strong in the Liberal Democrats.

So friends, on the fourth of July we made a great start. But now let’s go further. Let’s finish the job. And what a great chance we have next May, at county council elections in places like Devon and Surrey. Places with Conservative councils that have let people down for far too long. And places where we did rather well in July – and where we could do even better next time.

Never forget – our recovery has been built through your hard work, listening to and serving local people. Proper community politics. And our future success will be built the exact same way. 

Not just against the Conservatives next May, but across the country in the years to come – Including in the big cities like Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle, where we have such a proud history and such a bright future. Just like Hull, where we won back control two years ago and where Mike Ross and his team are showing the way. Cities that have thrived under Liberal Democrat-run councils in the past, and will do again.

Because not only has our strength in Parliament never been as great as it is now, But I believe our role in British politics – the Liberal Democrats’ purpose in British politics – has never been clearer than it is today. Not just to vanquish what’s left of the Conservative Party. Not just to take their remaining seats. And not just to be the careful scrutineers of Labour’s actions.

But after what we saw on our streets this summer, I have never been more certain of the need for a party with our principles and our values, front and centre of the political debate.

Conference, the killing of Elsie, Alice and Bebe at their Taylor Swift dance class in Southport was a horrifying crime and a heartbreaking tragedy. I know we’re all still thinking of their families and friends, as they grieve such a cruel loss.

And let’s not forget – that’s been the response of the vast majority of the British people. People of all backgrounds – in Southport and across the UK – who came together with love and compassion to support each other and to mourn the deaths of those three little girls.

Because we are a caring nation. And that should have been all that needed to be said.

But we know what happened next. A small minority of thugs resorted to appalling racism and violence – Egged on by notorious hate preachers and dangerous conspiracy theorists. They targeted mosques and advice centres, asylum seekers and police officers.

And let us be clear. These were not protests. These were lawless riots.

Riots where police officers were injured and abused as they tried to keep our communities safe. So it’s absolutely right that anyone involved in those riots now faces the full force of the law.

And let me say to all of you from Muslim and ethnic minority communities, who watched in fear – as those awful scenes unfolded – Who were forced to ask whether it was safe to step out onto your own streets, to go into your own city centres, or to pray at your own mosques – We stand with you. You should always feel safe. And we will work with you to tackle the appalling scourge of Islamophobia and racism.

But even amidst those awful, awful scenes, once again we saw the true nature of the British people. Not the racist, criminal minority. But the far larger numbers – of all races, all religions and none – who stood peacefully in solidarity against the violence. Against hate. Who condemned the riots, and came out the next morning, picked up binbags and brooms, and cleared up their communities. You are the true patriots in our country. Decent, kind, united. And we will never stop applauding you.

Conference, these are the values our politics needs now, more than ever. To resist the rise of the extremists – not just at home but around the world.

With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine. With the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7th. Hostages still held captive. The continuing illegal occupations and the threat of regional escalation. With the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency. How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November.

At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail.

Decency. Compassion. Community. Respect for the rule of law. Values that have always been at the heart of our party. Our party believes that basic rights and dignity are the birthright of every individual.

Our party celebrates Britain’s diversity as a great strength. Our party knows that our country thrives when it is open and outward-looking…When it stands tall as a force for good in the world, instead of shrinking from it and turning inwards.

And crucially, our party stays focused on tackling the real problems in people’s lives – From health and care to crime and the cost of living – Instead of looking for scapegoats or conspiracy theories as a shortcut to electoral success.

Our values are the antidote to the populism and extremism that threatens our communities, threatens the traditions we cherish, and threatens the British way of life.

You are the antidote to hate and division. 

A strong, proud and confident Liberal Democrat party, fighting for our values every day. Working hard in our communities, to change people’s lives for the better and give them the fair deal they deserve.

And as we leave here today – stronger and more confident than our party has ever been – Just think what we can achieve when we put those values into practice.

Just imagine the liberal Britain we can create together. Where we invest in education and innovation. Where we get people off NHS waiting lists and into work. Where we make it easier to juggle work with caring commitments. Where we grow our economy and create new opportunities – So everyone can get on in life, and see their hard work, talents and aspirations properly rewarded. Where we make sure everyone can afford a decent home, get the care they need, and enjoy a comfortable retirement when the time comes. Where we put real power in people’s hands. And hold the already powerful properly to account.

Liberal Democrats: That is the country we can build together. That is the fair deal we are working towards. And now we have 72 brilliant MPs to fight for it!

So let’s get to work in our communities. Let’s show people we are different. Let’s show them our values. Let’s show them we care. Let’s keep earning their trust. Let’s offer real hope. Let’s build a brighter future. And let’s keep on winning, so we can make it happen!