’We Care. We Fight.’ - But is Anyone Listening to the Lib Dems?

Sasha Batchelor, Consultant 
23/09/2026

Few parties have experienced such a mismatch between parliamentary strength and political relevance as today’s Liberal Democrats. Despite having 71 MPs and a growing number of councillors, Britain’s traditional third party is polling below where it was a year ago. Fewer than four in ten people know what it stands for.

Ed Davey’s personal ratings have also hardly moved. After six years as leader, nearly half of voters still have no view of him, while his campaigning style has drawn derision from opponents and internal critics.

At conference in Brighton, Davey pushed back against the idea that the Lib Dems are being forgotten as Reform and the Greens attract more attention. He pointed to their record of winning elections.

There is some truth in his response. The Lib Dems have gained seats at every set of local elections since Davey became leader, including more than 150 council seats this year. These more populist parties also have different approaches, and attention is only one measure of success. Still, the Lib Dems need a clearer national message.

Davey put a flagship £17bn income tax cut at the centre of his closing speech, partly as an offering to Conservative-leaning voters, many of whom backed the party in 2024. He promised to raise the tax-free allowance to £15,000 and the higher-rate threshold to £56,000, with the full increases potentially coming as late as 2034.

Reform UK has also pledged to raise the tax-free allowance to £15,000. Davey contrasted Reform’s plans to help fund tax cuts through welfare reductions with his proposed ‘growth dividend’ from rejoining the European single market and establishing a new customs union. The pledge recalls one of the party’s more positive achievements in coalition, when it helped raise the personal allowance.

This announcement does a better job of linking the Lib Dems’ long-standing position on Europe to voters’ everyday finances but depends on a swift EU deal and the promised growth materialising. Yet many restless MPs want a broader vision and may find a tax cut several years away too narrow an answer.

Conference also brought proposals for a temporary 10p cut in fuel duty, a £1 bus fare cap, an online crime agency funded by a levy on large tech companies, and a familiar focus on health and social care. The leadership appears to be listening and trying to act, though these pledges still need to feel like a coherent offer.

Speaking from the conference stage, Davey also presented the Lib Dems as a “firewall” against Nigel Farage and Reform UK, with a rallying cry of “we care, we fight” against “nasty populism”.

With few direct Lib Dem–Reform contests, that pitch again speaks to moderate Conservatives uneasy about their own party’s direction. Winning those seats will also depend on progressive voters backing the Lib Dems tactically.

Some MPs want the party to reach beyond its southern strongholds. That could broaden its appeal, but changing its pitch risks unsettling the voters who helped it win in 2024. In parts of southern England, their elected representatives have become familiar local champions.

Once established, the party can be like Japanese knotweed, difficult for opponents to remove. Its support is also concentrated in winnable constituencies, so polling at around 10% need not mean a dramatic fall in MPs at the next election given the party’s strategy of targeted regional efficiency.

There may be a bigger prize, too. Despite the scars of the last coalition, some MPs privately see a hung parliament as a chance to keep Reform out of government. Davey, an experienced political operator, could hold the balance of power over a minority Labour administration.

Davey now needs to turn Brighton’s announcements into a message that cuts through between elections and answers his growing number of internal critics. But another substantial haul of MPs, perhaps with real influence over who governs, remains within reach. In today’s politics, that is nothing to sniff at.