The Lib Dems are blowing a golden opportunity

The Lib Dems have never had a better chance to win support but they’re making two big mistakes: they think the Tories are their enemy and they think they’re doing well, says Andy Preston

The Lib Dems have never had such a golden opportunity to win attention, support and move the dial in politics. But they’re blowing it.

The goal is open for them because after just 11 weeks in power, our new government’s as chaotic and short of ideas as the last. And our Prime Minister’s exposed himself to be at least as open to financial sweeteners as Boris Johnson.  But what’s worse, unlike Johnson, he’s an ultra-pessimist who can’t see a positive future for any of us.

The Tories meanwhile are fumbling around, self-consciously trying to reconstruct their broken reputation. The stupefying saga that is the selection of their new leader is doing them no favours at all.  

Right now, there’s an obvious chance for an optimistic centrist party, with a popular leader, to step forward and inspire us all. So, why aren’t the Lib Dems stepping into the void?

It’s because they’re wrapped up with two basic and damaging problems: they think that the Tories are their enemy and they mistakenly think they’re doing well.

Dealing with their second problem first – they are categorically not doing well. Ed Davey did a good job of raising his own profile for the General Election and he became more popular. But his party’s wandered further into the wilderness.  They won even fewer votes than 2019 and are now more absent from people’s minds than ever before – literally no one cares whether this week is their conference or not.

Yes, I know that they have far more MPs. But that was a fluke of circumstance that will unwind at the next election. It was like a football team performing badly yet wining 2-0 because they got a couple of dodgy penalties, and the superior opposition kept hitting the crossbar. 

They won more seats because people were sick of the Tories and voted for whoever was likely to beat them in that location.  July 2024 was an anti-Tory election and neither the Lib Dems nor Labour gained the public’s trust.  Psephologists like John Curtice confirm this. 

Reform are the real threat

Rightly or wrongly, Reform UK are far more influential in British Politics than the Lib Dems. They won more votes, command much greater media attention and have superior social media presence. Reform are doing exactly what the Lib Dems should be doing: getting in front of people on TV and on their smartphones, and influencing the ideas of the two main parties.

Our country urgently requires a bold, centrist voice to challenge the two main parties.  We need a vibrant alternative that genuinely buzzes with workable solutions to our problems and relentlessly calls out the frightening failings of others. 

Sadly, the Lib Dems seem dormant rather than explosive.  Their relative silence over the Starmers’ clothes for access scandal is telling, especially when compared to their histrionic incandescence at wallpaper-gate.  It’s ok for them to be anti-Tory but being soft on Labour weakens the Lib Dems’ currency. Britain needs them to be a lot more noisy – on everything.

If they become more vocal and strident then they can win attention and change the way we see politics.  More importantly they can change the dismal way the two main parties work, often putting their careers ahead of the public interest.

Voters are pig-sick of our two party system and almost no one imagines that Keir Starmer of the next Tory leader will win voters’ trust. The emergence of of a combative and credible alternative is the only way we can raise our political establishment’s very low bar.  

Lib Dems please step forward with confidence, determination and integrity – your country needs you.   

Andy Preston is former mayor of Middlesborough