Davey speech: sneering Kemi Badenoch cares more about Twitter than fixing broken communities
EMBARGO: 22.30 Saturday 22 March
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today (Sunday 23 March) accuse Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch of “sneering” at local communities and spending more time on social media than on tackling the issues people face.
In a speech to the party’s Spring Conference today in Harrogate, Ed Davey will highlight Kemi Badenoch’s recent comments criticising the Liberal Democrats for not being on Twitter and instead being in their local communities focused on issues like “fixing church roofs.”
Ed Davey will say the comments show exactly the kind of “out-of-touch, disdainful thinking that explains the mess the Conservative Party is in today,” with an attitude that “what happens in our communities is trivial and insignificant compared to debating the true meaning of conservatism on Twitter.”
He will issue a rallying cry to party activists to kick the Conservatives out of councils at the local elections in May. The Liberal Democrats are poised to make big gains against the Tories across the country in key Blue Wall battlegrounds including Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Shropshire and Buckinghamshire.
Ed Davey will also position the Liberal Democrats clearly as the “only party in British politics speaking up in defiance of Donald Trump” and the threat he poses to peace and prosperity across the world. He will urge the Prime Minister instead to bring EU and Commonwealth leaders together to agree a coordinated response to Donald Trump’s trade war, including retaliatory tariffs on Teslas and other US goods.
On Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives, Ed Davey is expected to say:
“Kemi Badenoch says a Liberal Democrat is ‘somebody who is good at fixing their church roof. And people in the community like them.’ I think she meant it as an insult! But I’ll happily wear it as a badge of honour. Because she’s right: Liberal Democrats fix things.
“Isn’t it telling? Kemi’s sneering attitude that fixing church roofs is somehow beneath her, even beneath politics altogether; that what happens in our communities is trivial and insignificant compared to debating the true meaning of conservatism on Twitter. It is exactly that kind of out-of-touch, disdainful thinking that explains the mess the Conservative Party is in today.
“They have abandoned our communities – leaving schools and hospitals to crumble, whole areas without enough GPs or dentists, and water companies to pump filthy sewage into our rivers.
“It’s why so many lifelong Conservative voters have turned to the Liberal Democrats, it’s why people rightly kicked them out of government last July, and why we have to kick them out of our councils in May too.”
On standing up to Donald Trump, Ed Davey is expected to say:
“We’re the only party in British politics speaking up in defiance of Donald Trump. The only ones willing to state the obvious truth: that he is no leader of the free world.
“Trump cannot be relied upon to play by the rules, or stick to agreements. His presidency is a threat to peace and prosperity in the UK, across Europe, and around the world.
“We must deal with him as he is: bullying, narcissistic, unpredictable. We must deal with Trump from a position of strength, not weakness.”
On a coordinated response to Donald Trump’s trade war, Ed Davey is expected to say:
“A bad Trump deal won’t protect us from tariffs, and playing nice, being weak, is no way to deal with him either. So let’s stand up to Trump. Let’s stand side by side with the EU and our Commonwealth ally Canada. I urge the Prime Minister to bring those leaders together here in the UK to agree a coordinated response to Trump’s trade war – just like he’s rightly done on Putin’s murderous war.
“As others have done, we should hit back with tariffs of our own – starting with those Teslas Trump is so desperate to sell. Let’s put ourselves in the strongest possible position by rebuilding our trade with Europe – strengthening British businesses and showing Trump we have other options.”
ENDS
