Let’s make this review of the Ed Davey speech at conference short. I write some harsh things below, but generally I like Ed Davey and as a conference speech, I thought this was among the better I have sat through.

Conference speeches are hard, a terrible format. Good speeches are short and focussed. They develop one theme deeply mixing logic and poetry to hit all parts of our brains to get across a well formed point. Ideally they hit a specific audience with exactly what they need to hear.

Conference speeches do none of these things. Activists expect a long speech to make the queues worthwhile. They need to cater to people in the hall and people at home, swing voters and party diehards, expert political commentators and the man on the street. They are a recipe for muddle and that’s before interest groups start to lobby for their pet issues to be included.

Problem Statement

And yet, Davey’s speech yesterday was remarkably cohesive. He identified the problem with British and western politics, the rise of the far-right. He demonstrated the scope of the problem, from masked thugs in the UK, to social media platforms to the President of the United States.

He chose the right enemies, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and Elon Musk. He did not make them ten feet tall, lumping them in with Oswald Mosely and Nick Griffin while acknowledging that this threat is larger in scale.

Explaining the danger of the far-right in western politics is one of the most useful things a Lib Dem leader can do right now. For diplomatic reasons Andy Burnham can’t draw comparisons between Donald Trump and Nick Griffin. Kemi Badenoch will not trash Reform voters because she (forlornly) hopes to coax them back. Zach Polanski would struggle to explain the difference between George Bush and Donald Trump, both being manifestations of US imperialism. We need leaders who can bring the current moment into focus for us.

Tough Choices

The value of understanding a crisis is to bring clarity to what must be done. A new crisis gives leaders licence to drop previous policies and adopt new ones.

This is where Davey’s speech falters. After so clearly elucidating the dragon before him, Davey picks up not his sword but his ledger. Tax cuts, single market membership, AI safety and maternity care… These are all fine policies for capturing the votes of wet tories in the shires. They do not connect to his stark warning.

Worse, his delivery belies his mission. We whiplash from masked thugs to “winning in Devon” (a subtle dig at recent criticism of his leadership from the Lib Dem leader of Devon Council) in a few words.

He juxtaposes the dark forces of crypto millions, AI, social media and the President of the United States with his wife’s council-level housing policies. It sounds like he wants to put a sticking plaster on the Somme.

The Politics

The best politics for the Lib Dems right now is to extend their advantage in the shires at the expense of the Tories. To do this a Lib Dem leader should attack Labour relentlessly, and announce exactly the sort of policies Davey announced yesterday. Just enough caring to convince comfortable tory voters that they deserve their tax cuts. Perfect.

For this strategy Davey’s sunny reasonableness is well suited. Life is good for home county home owners, they’re looking for a capable manager who won’t rock the boat. Not the weird and chippy internet words of Kemi Badenoch.

This sensible strategy however butters no parsnips with Lib Dem activists. They see Trump, Musk and Farage and they are disgusted. They seek out the news and they increasingly understand that no number of council by-election wins will save them from what is coming.

To defeat far-right populism however Davey would need a whole new set of priorities. He would commit to working with whichever party will keep Reform out. He would announce a string of measures that would attack the foundations of far-right power. Social media regulation, proportional representation, mandatory voting, Ofcom enforcing fairness on GB News, public funding of political parties and tighter rules dividing the media from politics.

These policies are only interesting to nerds, but focussing on them would be supremely useful for British politics because the media would have to discuss them. They would likely cost the Lib Dems some parliamentary seats but to stop the far-right that is a bargain worth taking.

Ed Davey Speech: Between Two Stools

So given two strategies for defeating the far-right: Become the authentic voice of the moderate right and win by opposing Labour most credibly, or, sacrifice some Lib Dem MPs in the name of raising the policies required for Labour to destroy the underlying power structures supporting this dangerous tide of extremism, Davey opted for, and will achieve, neither.

For Ed Davey, it’s not good enough to show us the crisis. As a leader, he must confront it.

Photo Credit: Keith Edkins

---

You can still get a copy of our new edition of ChamberUK. Our parliamentary journal.

You can buy your copy here.

Please find below the full transcript of his speech (subheadings are my own).

---

The Fight of Our Lives

Sir Ed Davey MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Brighton 22nd September 2026

Confronting the far-right

Their aim is to intimidate, to spread fear, to stoke racism. They may call themselves patriots, but they would tear our country apart. We must not let them.

Conference, we have seen this before. Racism on Britain’s streets is, sadly, nothing new. Even though the vast majority of our fellow citizens share our values of decency, tolerance and respect, the values that make our country great, there has always been a small minority hell-bent on destroying them.

Mosley’s fascists in the 1930s. The National Front in the 1970s. Nick Griffin and the BNP two decades ago.

Each time, they tried to turn neighbour against neighbour, community against community, and our streets into battlegrounds. But we didn’t let them.

The British people said no. The East End stood firm at Cable Street. Lewisham and Wood Green turned them back. Voters shut the BNP out.

Every generation, we have these men who pretend to be patriots, who claim to speak for “real Britain”. And every generation, the real Britain refuses to accept it.

But something feels different this time, doesn’t it, Conference?

Because the blackshirts marching today aren’t doing it in isolation. They are just the most visible part of a far-right threat that is extremely well funded. It extends well beyond the shores of our United Kingdom and is promoted by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, with all the might of his social media platform.

And yes, Conference, we have to say it. This is a far-right movement that’s given oxygen, heat and fuel by politicians and parties who claim to be serious contenders to lead our country.

Cynical politicians like Nigel Farage, not just willing, but eager, to fan the flames of hatred and intolerance, to make himself richer, to get himself into power.

Trying to create a nation of division and fear, because that’s what keeps him going.

Well, Conference, that is not our country. That is not who we are. It is the worst of Trump’s America. We must not let it become Farage’s Britain.

Why Populism Is Finding an Audience

Condemnation alone is not enough. We have to understand why it’s happening so we can defeat it.

People are fed up. They see a politics that promises change and fails to deliver. Their bills keep rising. Their kids still can’t afford a home of their own. Their loved ones still wait too long for a GP appointment.

When people stop believing politics can change their lives, they get cynical. Angry. And they’re not wrong.

When our young people can’t see a future for themselves in our communities, they stop looking. And they turn to their screens instead.

Screens that offer the illusion of excitement, the illusion of connection, the illusion of belonging, but only deepen the sense of emptiness and loneliness that no amount of scrolling can ever fill.

Is it any wonder the populists have found something to exploit?

Their whole agenda is to tear everything down. And when people are desperate for change, “tear it all down” starts to sound like the only honest thing left.

People feel powerless. They’re looking for anyone who seems willing to tell the truth about how broken things feel.

We have to understand that, Conference. Because the fight against those forces really is the fight of our lives.

The Liberal Answer: Community Politics

It will take more than a manifesto. It will take a movement rooted in decency, fairness and community. British values. Liberal values.

That movement can’t just talk to itself. We won’t win the fight of our lives by retreating to our own bubble, talking only to people who already agree with us.

Real liberalism is rooted in seeing the value of every human being, not just the ones who share our appearance or our beliefs.

A free society is messy. It’s full of disagreement. And as liberals, we don’t erase our differences. We confront them.

Not by shouting past each other, but by building real human connections. Person to person. Neighbour to neighbour. Street by street.

Because when that person you disagree with stops being just another little box on your social media feed and becomes a human being, with a face, a home and a life, that’s when we make progress.

And Conference, if this all sounds eerily familiar, it should.

Because this is exactly what our party has always been about: community politics.

Putting Power in People’s Hands

Real community politics is not some cunning tactic to win a few more votes at election time. It is a year-round commitment to form those human connections, to be truly part of the communities we serve.

Going from doorstep to doorstep, high street to village hall, train station to school gate.

Showing people that democracy can actually work for them. That it can change their lives and their communities for the better.

Not doing things to people. Not even doing things for people. But doing things with them, and giving them the power to do more for themselves.

Friends, I’ve seen the life-changing power of community politics very close to home.

We have a lot of brilliant Liberal Democrat councillors in Kingston. But there’s one who, I think, is especially brilliant. Some of you might know her: my wonderful wife, Emily.

Emily is leading Kingston’s biggest council house-building programme in half a century. But what makes her a brilliant liberal isn’t just the number of council homes she’s building. It’s how she’s doing it.

When Emily took over, there was already a plan to regenerate the borough’s biggest council estate. But it was a plan drawn up by the old Conservative council that gave no say at all to the people who actually lived there.

It was something being done to them, not with them.

So Emily said no. It’s their home. They should have a say.

Empowering the Powerless

As I’ve said to you before, Conference, if you want one sentence that sums up what liberalism means to me, it’s this:

Being a liberal is about empowering the powerless and holding the already powerful to account.

And it’s not just councils or developers we need to hold to account.

The water companies polluting our rivers while paying vast sums in dividends and bonuses. The social media barons poisoning the minds of our children while stirring up division and hatred. The corrupt politicians enriching themselves while taking everyone else for granted.

And there’s a new power we can’t afford to ignore.

Artificial intelligence.

The Threat and Promise of AI

Artificial intelligence is already changing our lives in ways we notice and ways we don’t.

Handled well, it could cure diseases, make work easier and unlock discoveries we can barely imagine.

But handled badly, it concentrates more power in fewer hands than at any point in human history.

Some of the very scientists and engineers building this technology are warning that superintelligent AI could, and this is a direct quote, “kill us all”.

It’s not science fiction. That is a live warning from the people who know.

So this is not just the fight of our lives. It is the fight for life itself.

The future of this technology is being decided by a tiny number of the richest and most powerful men in California and Beijing, racing each other with no guardrails and no one to slow them down.

Conference, we would never accept that with any other existential threat. And we must not accept it when it comes to AI.

A Global Treaty on Superintelligent AI

We didn’t leave the atom bomb to a few billionaires to police themselves. We built the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nations working together to control a technology that could destroy us all.

And on climate change, our party has always been at the forefront of pushing for international action.

We did those things because, as liberals, we know that something as existential as nuclear weapons or climate change cannot be left in the hands of a powerful few.

And so it must be with AI.

We need a global treaty to press pause on superintelligent AI now, before it’s too late.

We need a new international AI safety agency, like we have for nuclear technology, to stop anyone from developing this technology recklessly.

A liberal solution, because the problem is fundamentally one about power.

It’s too concentrated, and we must break it up.

A Caring Country That Empowers People

But we must also pay attention to the other half of our liberal equation: giving people more power.

Not just doing things for them because the state knows best. Or leaving them to sink or swim.

But empowering people by helping everyone to be the best they can be for themselves.

This is the liberal mission.

And I think about it most when I think about our son, John.

Emily and I were told, when John was small, that he would spend his life permanently in a wheelchair. We were told we needed to accept that.

But we didn’t.

We sought out therapy that helped John’s muscles. We learned exercises to help John control his own body. Emily spent two years painstakingly teaching John to crawl.

Slowly but surely, and with a lot of help, we’ve empowered John to hold his own weight and to walk if aided.

When we go on family walks, he rides a tricycle. And he loves it.

Too many of our social service systems don’t empower people like John. They think care is something you do to people.

Real care doesn’t just manage people. It unlocks their potential.

Making Britain the Safest Place to Give Birth

It all starts right at the very beginning, at birth. That precious, miraculous moment when everything changes.

It should be a time of unblemished joy.

But right now, here in one of the richest countries on Earth, giving birth is not always safe.

Inquiry after inquiry has found the same horrifying pattern: mothers and babies left with life-changing injuries, or worse, because of a maternity system stretched far beyond its limits.

Midwives doing their best, but exhausted, and buildings that aren’t fit for purpose.

That shames our country, and we won’t accept it.

We will give mothers the one-to-one care they need, make every maternity unit safe and end this scandal once and for all.

Conference, I believe Britain should be the safest place in the world to give birth.

Families Under Pressure

And it should be the best country in the world to raise a family, too.

But that promise cannot be realised while our families are being crushed by rising bills and an economy that feels rigged against them.

They cannot be powerful or free while a cost-of-living crisis grinds them down every day.

The young couple who did everything they were told to do, worked hard, saved what they could, and still can’t get near a mortgage.

The pensioner who was scared to turn on a fan this summer and is now scared to turn on the heating this winter.

The people who say: “I’m working harder than ever. I managed to get a promotion and a pay rise, but somehow I’m struggling more than I was before.”

Britain and Europe

We know what has brought us to this point.

The terrible economic damage of the Conservatives’ Brexit deal, backed, let’s not forget, by Nigel Farage.

A Brexit deal that put up barriers to trade, tied up British businesses in costs and red tape, pushed up prices on our supermarket shelves and took opportunities away from our young people.

Conference, we are the only ones with the courage to say it: fixing our relationship with Europe is the only way to get our economy back on track.

And we are fighting to do just that.

Put Britain back where it belongs, back at the heart of Europe.

Last year, I set out our plan for a new customs union to slash Brexit red tape.

Now I’m going further.

Not just a customs union, but joining the Single Market too.

Bringing down those barriers to trade, breathing new life into our economy and bolstering our collective security too.

Not just a growth plan. A defence plan to defeat Putin, to protect our continent and our country.

Raising the Personal Allowance to £15,000

Growing our economy like this will mean we can tackle the cost of living too.

And that starts with income tax.

Because of the lack of growth, governments have taken more and more out of people’s pockets by freezing the tax-free personal allowance, raising income tax by stealth.

When we were in government, our party did the opposite. We raised the personal allowance by £4,000. We took more than three million people out of paying income tax altogether.

It was a profoundly liberal thing to do: rewarding hard work and aspiration, helping the lowest paid the most, trusting people to spend their own money.

And our liberal approach is what is needed again today.

So I’m announcing our plan to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000.

Taking two million more people out of paying tax altogether and giving most taxpayers a £680 tax cut.

Real money back in people’s pockets.

Raising the 40p Threshold

And we can go further to tackle a second unfairness.

Thirty years ago, just two million people paid the higher rate of income tax. Now it’s nine million.

A tax band designed for stockbrokers is now holding back teachers and nurses.

That’s not fair. It’s not right.

Our growth plan will mean we can raise the 40p threshold to £56,000, taking hundreds of thousands of ordinary people out of paying higher-rate tax.

Growing our economy with Europe. Backing our great British businesses. Putting money back into people’s pockets.

That is our vision for a better economy. A liberal vision where everyone feels the benefits.

Fixing Britain’s Broken Politics

Conference, there is a bigger, more fundamental change we need to talk about.

Changing the nature of politics itself.

The maternity crisis. The housing shortage. The sewage scandal. The cost of living. The sense that nothing quite works the way it should.

These are not the failings of British people. Not for one second.

They are the failings of governments.

Labour governments. Conservative governments. SNP governments in Holyrood.

Governments that don’t listen, that take people for granted and let them down.

But here’s the good news.

There is no failing of British governments that cannot be put right by the talents of the British people. Not one.

We have the engineers, the entrepreneurs, the teachers and carers, the scientists and small business owners.

It isn’t talent we’re lacking.

What we are lacking is a system that empowers people to make the most of that talent.

The Fight of Our Lives

Our United Kingdom is a great country. A truly great country.

But it is a country being held back. Held back by governments that have failed it, and by a system that is broken.

As liberals, that is our task: to change our broken politics so we can fix our country.

To win the fight of our lives.

I won’t pretend to you that it will be easy.

This is a fight against hopelessness and cynicism. Against populists who profit from division. Against the forces that would tear our country apart.

Conference, we will not back down.

We will stand and fight for the country we love.

This fight isn’t just about the next election. It’s about the whole future of our country. What kind of country our children grow up in, and whether they can be proud of it.

Not just a choice between policy platforms.

It’s a choice between tearing our great country down and looking for someone to blame, or lifting it up by trusting the British people.

Between a politics of grievance and a politics of empowerment.

That is the choice.

Liberty, Equality and Community

So when we leave this hall, let’s remember why.

For the family doing the sums at the kitchen table, who need life to be just a little bit easier.

For the mother holding her newborn baby, so she can look forward with hope.

For John, and everyone like him, who deserves care that empowers them to thrive.

For that young woman on her doorstep, whose Britishness should not be up for debate.

Let’s build a country that works for them.

Let’s put more money in people’s pockets and more power in people’s hands.

Let’s change our politics so we can build a country that is richer, safer, more liberal in the truest sense of that word.

Not a label, but a promise: that who you are, where you’re from and what you look like will never determine whether you belong here or how far you can go.

Friends, this is a fight for the future of our country.

A fight for liberty, equality and community.

A fight for the values we hold dear.

This is the fight of our lives, and we are going to win it.