Ed Davey Autumn Speech in full

Good afternoon friends.

It was an enormous privilege to represent our party, and my Kingston and Surbiton constituents, at the funeral of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Beneath the splendour of Westminster Abbey, surrounded by dignitaries from nations around the world – It was a beautiful memorial to a life of faith, devoted to our country and our Commonwealth. And a poignant celebration of values we all hold dear:

Patriotism. Compassion. Service. Values embodied by Her Majesty.

We thank her again. And we welcome her son, King Charles III, to the throne. This speech was, of course, originally scheduled for September. In Brighton. But we rightly cancelled our conference, so we could properly mourn Her Majesty.

That does of course mean that I’ve had to postpone this speech for 47 days… Or, to use the modern unit of measurement, approximately one Liz Truss. And that says it all, doesn’t it?

The chaos and incompetence that these Conservatives have inflicted on our great United Kingdom – All their squabbling, their scandals, their sleaze. It’s shameful.

This would be unacceptable at any time. But when our country is in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis – When local health services are on their knees – When war ravages our continent – It is nothing less than a betrayal of the British people.

Has there ever been such a chasm between the duty and dedication needed for public office, and the appalling dishonesty and disregard of this Government?

Over the last few months, I’ve listened to countless people, in my constituency and all over the country – People, struggling, just to make ends meet. Pensioners, shivering at home, scared to turn on the heating. Pub landlords, seeing their overheads skyrocket. Parents making difficult cut backs, trying hard not to let their children see how worried they are.

People need a Government in control. With a plan. With a fair deal. But what have we got instead?

Chaos. From Conservative clowns, who either don’t get it or just don’t care. The Conservatives try to blame their chaos on everyone else.

The BBC, the civil service, the “wokerati” – whoever they are. They’ve blamed the Bank of England, British businesses, and even British workers. But it won’t wash. We all know who’s responsible. The blame for this chaos lies squarely with the Conservative Party.

But we also know that the cost-of-living crisis has been made worse by the evil hand of Vladimir Putin. Just as he is waging war by tanks and missiles against the heroic people of Ukraine, Putin is waging an energy war against the whole of the western world. We stand with all Ukrainians as they bravely and brilliantly resist the Russian war machine. Tens of thousands of British families have opened their homes and their hearts to people fleeing for safety.

The UK will continue to aid their fight for their country, their democracy and their freedom. Ukraine’s fight is our fight. But we must resist Putin as he wages his energy war too.

It’s a war that threatens a different kind of misery and destruction, right across our continent. And it’s a war we must win. The UK must fight back – not just by arming and training Ukrainian soldiers, but with a wartime effort at home, to protect the British people from Putin’s aggression.

We must fortify our nation – not just with troops and submarines, but with wind turbines, solar panels and tidal power. And we must insulate every home – not just from the cold, but from the cost of Putin’s gas war.

We must protect the British people – not just from bombs and bullets, but from soaring energy bills today and climate change tomorrow. So I am proud that it was we Liberal Democrats who built up our country’s defences – when we were in Government. Investing in cheap, renewable energy. Building Britain’s clean energy defences. Walls of wind turbines in the seas around our islands.

And I am proud that, again, Liberal Democrats are leading the charge for new defences for Britain. To protect our families and pensioners from Putin’s energy war. Paid for by a windfall tax.

More than a year ago, Liberal Democrats were the first party to argue for a windfall tax on the record profits of the oil and gas giants. And since then, the case for our windfall tax has only got stronger, as those profits have soared even higher for one main reason: a brutal dictator spilling innocent Ukrainian blood. There are no arguments left. The right thing to do – the fair thing to do – is to tax those blood-oil profits. But Chancellor Rishi Sunak said no.

Sunak chose to pass on high energy costs – not to those profiteering from Russia’s energy war, but to those suffering from it – Britain’s struggling families and hard-pressed businesses. And Sunak waited another six months before introducing his so-called “Energy Profits Levy”.

A tax so ineffective, do you know how much Shell paid out on its £26 billion profits? Not a single penny.

My friends, the Conservatives are both totally incompetent and morally bankrupt.

And the Conservatives almost bankrupted Britain too. With their unfunded tax cuts for the super wealthy. Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis seriously, they chose to treat the British economy as their own personal playground – Using people as playthings in their reckless game of fantasy economics.

Just look at the damage. For our country: billions of pounds extra on the national debt. Pension funds at risk. Inflation through the roof. Exports through the floor.  Predictions of the longest recession in history.

And for struggling families across Britain: A mortgage crisis, with people’s monthly payments up by hundreds of pounds. Millions of families struggling to pay a Conservative Property Penalty, every single month.

Never again can the Conservatives claim to be the party of homeowners. Never again can they claim to be the party of business. Never again can they claim to be the party that balances the books.

The Conservatives are the party of chaos. And now what worries millions of people is what happens next.

After inflicting so much chaos, the Conservatives want the rest of us to pay to clear up their mess. They are already talking about more unfair tax rises. More cuts to pensions and benefits. More cuts to schools. The police. Even our NHS. All to fill the hole they themselves created.

It’s like they’ve robbed our bank, and now they’re asking us for a loan to buy their getaway car!

Well, we say “No.” Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt – Instead of inflicting even more pain on struggling families and pensioners, it’s time to start helping. Put a proper windfall tax on the blood-oil profits of the fossil fuel giants. Reverse your tax cuts for the big banks – they are unfair and unnecessary. And use those extra billions to give people real help with energy bills. To protect pensions and benefits from inflation. To safeguard schools, hospitals and councils from cuts. And to help homeowners struggling to pay that Conservative Property Penalty.

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were rightly kicked out of Downing Street for their disastrous policies. But no one else should lose their homes because of them. So today, I’m proposing a new Mortgage Protection Fund, To cover the extra costs for those families seeing their payments rise most sharply. To protect them from falling into serious arrears or even facing repossession.

And it’s not just homeowners who need help. The Conservative Property Penalty is making it even harder for young families to get a mortgage in the first place. So we will keep campaigning too for stronger rights for renters, to give them security in their homes and protection from unfair rent hikes. People and businesses need help now – just to survive inflation this winter.

But they also need a plan to end this recession. To end the chaos and the pain. A plan to get our economy growing strongly again. To create opportunity and prosperity for all. And that plan can’t be the cut-to-the-bone, race-to-the-bottom, trickle-down nonsense we always hear from the Conservatives.

The real answer – the Liberal Democrat plan – is about innovation, investment, trade and people. Innovation: from batteries to biotech. Investment: in every part of the UK. Trade: on our high streets and with the world. Backing local businesses with rate reform. And tearing up the Conservatives’ red tape that’s strangling trade with our closest neighbours – with Europe.

But above all, the Liberal Democrat economic plan is about people. Because you can’t get the economy growing again without the right people, with the right skills, in the right jobs. From construction to care, from hospitality to health, the British economy is being held back by a lack of staff and a lack of skills. So let’s tackle the health crisis, that keeps hundreds of thousands of people off work as they wait for treatment. Let’s offer more training for young people and adults alike. And let’s make the jobs we need, jobs people want to do. By giving people more flexibility, greater security and better conditions at work. So those in work want to stay there. And those who left work after lockdown want to go back.

That’s how you grow our economy. But the Conservatives are doing precisely the reverse.

Neglecting local health services. Threatening more cuts to schools and colleges. And tearing up hard-won employment rights.

All because Rishi Sunak doesn’t understand the reality of most people’s daily lives. He doesn’t get what it’s like for the mum and dad working shifts, who gets told their hours just days in advance. How hard it is to find someone to look after the kids, or to check in on their frail gran. Who don’t know how much they’ll get paid next month. How hard that makes budgeting for the weekly shop.

Rishi Sunak is so out of touch, he even appointed a Work and Pensions Secretary who wants to roll back hard-won maternity and paternity rights.

To grow our economy again, we need a plan for innovation, investment and trade. We need a Government that puts people first. And gives workers a fair deal.

The Conservatives are incapable of doing that. The Liberal Democrats will.

And it’s not just the economy where the Conservatives are failing the British people. It’s just about everything. I have never known our country so badly governed.

Need to renew your passport in time for your holiday? Under the Conservatives: good luck.

Need an operation to stop that dreadful pain in your hip? Under the Conservatives: stack up on painkillers.

Need an ambulance in an emergency? Or an NHS dentist? Under the Conservatives: many people are resorting to DIY.

What has happened to our country under the chaos Conservatives?

I know Conservative MPs were saying everything would magically get better once Liz Truss was gone. Just like they said everything would magically get better once Boris Johnson was gone. That went well, didn’t it? The faces at the top may change, but all the same problems remain.

One of Rishi Sunak’s very first decisions as Prime Minister was to reappoint the awful Suella Braverman as Home Secretary. Less than a week after she’d been forced to resign for breaking the rules. Truss-like judgement, with Johnson-like integrity. Nadhim Zahawi said it was time for Boris 2.0. With Rishi Sunak, it looks like he got his wish.

In fact, the only real shift in Conservative policy has been on the consumption of baked goods. Namely, cake. Under Boris Johnson it was having his cake and eating it. With Rishi Sunak it’s “Let them eat cake”. The Conservatives are still hopelessly out of touch with the everyday lives of British people. They’re still letting you down and taking you for granted.

And it is still our job to hold these Conservatives to account – and get them out of office at the next General Election. At that election, millions of voters will be asking a simple question:

“How do we get rid of our awful Conservative MP?”

And we’ve shown time and time again, that’s something the Liberal Democrats are pretty good at. Take our three historic by-election wins. Sarah Green in Chesham and Amersham, overturning a Conservative majority of 16,000. Helen Morgan in North Shropshire, overturning a majority of 23,000. And this summer, in Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, overturning a Conservative majority of 24,000!

Fantastic. And we didn’t just beat the Conservatives in Devon – We showed Boris the door! But that’s not all. In May, we also secured a fantastic set of local election results. Defeating Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid.

And making big gains in Scotland, taking on the Nationalists, who threaten to tear our precious family of nations apart. And whose obsession with breaking up the UK – at the expense of all else – is causing real pain. But my favourite result of May’s local elections was in Blackmoor Vale, in Somerset.

Where Sarah Dyke and Nicola Clark beat a Tory councillor – the head of a special unit in Conservative HQ. We Lib Dems beat the Tory running the Tory unit dedicated to beating the Lib Dems!

Afterwards, someone asked me if we have our own crack squad specialising in beating the Conservatives. I said yes… It’s called the Liberal Democrats! We win by really listening to people.  

Listening to your concerns. Your frustrations. And showing we hear you. Showing we care about the things you care about… Making sure you can afford a decent home, pay the bills, and save for retirement. Access to high-quality local health services, without waiting for weeks. Good schools for your children, where your child’s needs are met. Safe communities, where you and your neighbours are free from the threat of crime.

Clean local environments, where you and your family can enjoy open green spaces and blue rivers. That’s why we launched our campaign to stop water companies pouring tonnes of raw sewage straight into local rivers. Conservative MPs have utterly failed to stand up for their constituents. They have let water companies make vast profits – while getting away with dumping their filthy sewage.

And the regulator Ofwat has been the accomplice in their crime. So I’m calling on the Government to abolish Ofwat, set up a proper watchdog with real teeth, to do whatever it takes to stop the sewage. Steal the Liberal Democrat idea for a sewage tax. Borrow our ban on bonuses for water bosses. And make them finally clean up our rivers. 

That’s the sort of fair deal I’m talking about. That’s the fair deal you expect and deserve. And that’s the fair deal we Liberal Democrats are fighting for.

And let me tell you why this fight matters so much to me – personally. Like so many others, my life has taught me about care. About coping with the challenges of family illness.  And the importance of our NHS.

I come originally from Nottinghamshire, the youngest of three brothers. Both of my parents were taken from us when we were still young – my dad died when I was four, and mum when I was 15.

That’s why I campaign so much on bereavement. How we should care – more – for bereaved families. And why improving cancer services is so close to my heart. As both my parents died from cancer.

And I’ve spoken before about how I cared for my mum in her final years, my Nanna in her autumn years, and how Emily and I now care for our disabled son, John. I know a little about caring for loved ones. The mental health challenges at school when you’re a young carer. The financial challenges of keeping a deeply loved grandmother in a care home. And the emotional challenges of juggling work and care as a parent.

This week, Emily decided to talk about her own challenges with MS. I am in awe of her. And all the carers who manage their own ill health while looking after others. We know how hard every day can be for family carers – the millions of family carers across our country.

How important their work is to our society and our economy – And yet how forgotten they so often are. So when I look at the challenges facing our country, I do so through a carer’s eyes. And I see a lot that needs to be fixed.

But I want to start by ending the national scandal of millions of people waiting for weeks to see a doctor. The blame for this crisis is clear. It’s not our overworked GPs. It’s the Conservatives. They promised 6,000 more doctors, at the last election – but the number of qualified GPs has actually fallen by 500. And our solution is clear too.

Give everyone a new right to see their GP within seven days. And within 24 hours if they need to. Not an ambition. Not an expectation. Not a target. But a right.

And we know that you don’t deliver on that right by copying the Conservatives’ failed approach. Just setting the targets. Then cutting GP numbers. Then blaming the doctors when the targets are missed. This is about the Government stepping up. To train, retain and recruit 8,000 more GPs. To fix the broken pension rules forcing many doctors to quit. To reduce the pressure on GPs, with pharmacists, nurses and paramedics helping wherever possible. To give doctors the time and the tools to do the job. So everyone can get the care they need.

And there’s one more change we must fight for. A crucial part of our fair deal: A fairer politics.

If there’s one thing the last year has shown us, it’s that our political system is not fit for purpose. First Past the Post distorts democracy. It denies voters a real choice. It incentivises political parties to do exactly what the Conservatives do now: Focus on a small number of voters. In a small number of marginal seats. Ignoring everyone else. And so taking millions of people for granted. We have to stop that.

In the end, for us, as liberals, it comes down to power. And a proportional electoral system would give every voter equal power. And with fair votes, everyone could make their voices heard. Everyone’s vote would have real power.

Voter power to hold every MP to account. Putting power in people’s hands. Holding the powerful to account – that is our liberal mission.

So, Liberal Democrats, let’s make the next General Election the last one to use First Past the Post.

Speaking of General Elections… Why haven’t we had one yet? It’s obvious we need one. The British people demand one. Even that well-known constitutional scholar – Nadine Dorries – now says it’s “impossible to avoid” an election.

So why hasn’t Rishi called one? We know why. Because he knows he’d lose.

He saw what Liberal Democrats did to the Conservatives in true-blue Buckinghamshire, in Shropshire and in Devon. And he knows we will do it again – in seats along the Blue Wall. And right across the country.

Well, being scared of the Liberal Democrats isn’t a good enough reason to deny the British people their say. This is the guy who, two years ago, was telling us all “eat out to help out”.

Well our message to the Conservatives is this: Help out by clearing out.

Rishi Sunak: Your Government does not have a shred of credibility left. It does not have a shred of legitimacy left. If you had a shred of integrity left, you would call a General Election. Now.

But whenever that election comes, Liberal Democrats will be ready. We are the party that will end the chaos. The party that understands the challenges people are facing. We’ll show that we are the party that cares. The party that has a plan. The party that offers a fair deal.

And that’s why we will win.

ENDS