The Liberal Democrats

Led by Sir Ed Davey · MP for Kingston and Surbiton

Polling average

10.0%

Led by Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats in 2024, their strongest showing since the party was formed. Through 2026 they have made opposition to Nigel Farage the centre of their messaging, with Davey pledging to "stop Trump's America becoming Farage's Britain".

Leader: Sir Ed Davey
MPs: 72 seats won
Founded: 1988
Members: Not published

Where they sit

Position on the spectrum

Centre to centre-left. Socially liberal and pro-European, with a campaigning focus on health and social care and, since 2025, on opposing Reform UK directly.

LeftCentreRight

Labour-3Reform+8Conservative+5Green-7Lib Dems-2Restore+9

Spectrum positions are editorial judgements, not measurements. How we place parties.

Leadership

The leader

Sir Ed Davey

Leader · MP for Kingston and Surbiton

Leader since 2020. Energy and Climate Change Secretary in the 2010–2015 coalition government. Led the party to its best ever Commons result in 2024.

Track record

Delivered 72 seats and record local election gains; one of the longest-serving current party leaders.

Sources

Liberal Democrats — Ed Davey spring conference speech 2026 · 1 March 2026

Second in command

Daisy Cooper

Deputy Leader and Treasury spokesperson · MP for St Albans

Where they stand

The policies

7 of 10 areas with a position we could source

All six parties are asked the same questions in the same order, so their answers can be read against each other. Positions are the party’s own; anything in the grey line beneath is our note on where a policy is contested or short on detail.

01
Immigration & asylum
Who gets to come here, who gets to stay, and what happens to people who arrive without permission.
Emphasises safe and legal routes and faster decision-making, arguing deterrence-first policy has repeatedly failed to reduce crossings.
02
Tax & the economy
Who pays what, and what the state can afford as a result.
A £9.4bn package for social care and the NHS, funded by higher taxes on banks and tighter capital gains rules for the very wealthy.
03
NHS & social care
How healthcare and care for older and disabled people are funded and delivered.
Free personal care for everyone who needs it, costed at £2.7bn a year by 2028–29 and funded by reversing tax cuts given to the large banks since 2016 — so that nobody has to sell their home to pay for personal care. Alongside it a Carer's Minimum Wage set £2 above the minimum wage, a Royal College of Care Workers, and Carer's Allowance raised by £20 a week with eligibility extended to anyone earning under £183 a week.
Analysts have welcomed the seriousness of the reform while questioning whether the funding stream covers the long-run cost.
04
Housing
Whether enough homes get built, who builds them, and who can afford one.
Expanding council-led housebuilding, bringing empty homes back into use, and requiring developers to deliver the affordable homes they have been permitted to build.
05
Crime & justice
Policing, sentencing and prisons — how much punishment, and how much prevention.
Restoring community policing, and scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners in favour of local Police Boards made up of councillors and local representatives, with the savings put into frontline policing. Recent party papers also defend trial by jury against proposals to restrict it.
06
Energy & net zero
How fast Britain cuts carbon emissions, what it costs, and who bears the cost.
Ending sewage discharges by water companies has been the party's most prominent environmental campaign.
07
Education
Schools, universities and skills — funding, standards and who pays for what.
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.
08
Defence & foreign policy
Military spending, NATO, the nuclear deterrent and Britain's alliances.
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.
09
Europe & the constitution
The relationship with the EU, membership of international courts, and how power is distributed within the UK.
The most consistently pro-European of the six: repairing what Davey calls Britain's "broken relationship" with Europe, tearing down trade barriers and fixing the "botched" Brexit deal. Domestically he has called for "a new Magna Carta" to constrain executive power.
10
Media & culture
The BBC, broadcasting, and contested questions of national identity and religious practice.
No current published position located. This may mean the party has said little on the subject, or that we have not found what it has said — we would rather show the gap than fill it with inference.

Policy positions drawn from

Positions are summarised from each party’s published material and reporting of it, not from a full manifesto reading, and platforms move. How we work.

The case each way

Credibility and concerns

What the party can point to, and what is fairly put against it. Both columns are drawn from documented, attributable material — never from our own opinion of the party.

What they can credibly claim

72 seats in 2024 — the best result in the party's history.
Record-breaking local election gains, which Davey has said position the party to "win again in 2026".
A large and effective ground operation in southern English seats taken from the Conservatives.

Concerns and open questions

Polling around 10%, below its 2024 vote share and behind the Greens for fourth place in most averages.
The heavy focus on Farage — by one count, more than 30 references at the party's conference, far more than to the Prime Minister — has drawn criticism that it crowds out a distinct offer of its own.
The party's seat total rests on tactical anti-Conservative voting in southern seats, a coalition that a three-way national race makes harder to hold.

The team