Ed Davey: Lib Dems are doing 'better than expected' in local elections

The votes are still being counted, but so far we’re doing better than we expected and we think we’ve got really good results still to come. So it’s gonna be a fantastic night, we think, for the Liberal Democrats. And you know, here we are in Winchester, where we’ve made big gains and we think we can take this seat to the next general election. Across the blue world, we’re finding that. But I’m reflecting on what the voters told us during this campaign. They are shocked that the NHS is such a mess under the Conservatives, the care citizen, failing. They’re worried about the cost of living, they’re not getting the help they need and they’re very angry about the sewage being pumped into their river. So they want change, and that’s what Liberal Democrats want to we want a general election as soon as possible. And the Liberal Democrats on the back of these results are more than ready for that general election. Well, the Democrats have done well where we were fighting hard. And I can take you to so many seats, many of which have yet to count. Cheltenham, this looking really good for us. Tunbridge, Wells, Dorset, many other areas. And these are seats that are great for us at council level, but we think we can win them in the next general election. And in so many parts of the blue wall, the southeast, the southwest, where we’re back again, it’s the Liberal Democrat vote that can beat the conservatives of the next general election. Well, I think the Reform Party is taking votes off the Conservatives and I think that’s going to be a real problem for Rishi Sunak and his party. And I think if you look at the parliamentary by elections where we were the challenges in this Parliament, we’ve won four historic victories. That’s more than we have for a generation. The last time we won four by elections during a Parliament was before the 1997 election when the Liberal Democrats had a massive breakthrough. So we’re pretty confident on the results we’ve seen in this Parliament. I’m increasingly confident that Liberal Democrats can win Cheltenham. We’ve got a great candidate, Max Wilkinson, we’ve run the council brilliantly. But you know what we’re not going to take? Things for granted. We’re not complacent. One thing that I hear from people is they’re very angry with the conservatives who’ve taken long lifelong conservatives for granted for far too long. And that’s one of the reasons why people are switching to us. So we’re going to work in every seat where we can win till the last minute to to merit people voting for us. This is disaster for the conservatives and in so many parts of the country it’ll be conservative MPs worried about Liberal Democrats across the southeast, the blue wall, the southwest, in many other parts of the country where we are the challenges. The conservatives people know that if you want to get rid of this awful Conservative government and make them history. They should vote Liberal Democrat.