Which way should the Lib Dems face now: left, right or in both directions?
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons
How did they do it? The Liberal Democrat president Mark Pack says their important task this week is setting up a review of their general election performance. It will report by the end of this year, chaired by Near-fatal recriminations over the 2010-15 coalition with the Tories were forgotten at last as the party scored four by-election victories in the last parliament and turned them into a springboard for scores of general election victories.. They are overwhelmingly in the “Blue Wall”, one-time Conservative seats, nearly half of their populations being the professional middle classes.
If the Lib Dems turn their attack on Labour, the polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice says the party will find slim pickings. “It is difficult to see how it makes further progress,” he says. There are now only six seats where the Lib Dems are in second place behind Labour, a poor base from which to mount an assault. Worse, Labour have by far the most MPs, which means their seats are most likely to be in contention when by-elections start happening.
Some expected Davey to step down after the election. Not after this result; he has already announced that he will stand in Kingston and Surbiton at the next election. He is now the longest-serving party leader as well as being a former cabinet minister in the coalition government. Lib Dem policy supports house building but that is no bar to Nimbyism on a constituency basis. Likewise denouncing water companies over sewage poses no problems for activists. The main focus at the conference will be on social issues and the social liberalism which has long united the contrarian membership.
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