In Pictures: Never a dull moment with Sir Ed Davey on Lib Dem election trail
PA
·2-min read
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey threw himself into the General Election campaign in more ways than one, attempting a whole range of action-packed stunts designed to get the voting public’s attention.
The 58-year-old brought some light relief to an otherwise intense pre-election period, causing a splash paddleboarding and surfing, and entertaining onlookers with a bungee jump while urging voters to take a similar “leap of faith” and back his party at the ballot box.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey made an early campaign visit to Eastbourne, East Sussex, where he ate an ice cream on the promenade (Aaron Chown/PA)
The campaign trail then took him to Whittlesford in Cambridge where he launched the party’s battlebus (Jacob King/PA)
The 58-year-old fell in the water while paddleboarding on Lake Windermere as he outlined his party’s plan to tackle the sewage crisis … (Peter Byrne/PA)
… and careered down the High Street hill in Knighton on a bike to launch the party’s campaign in Wales (Jacob King/PA)
Taking a more sedentary approach, Sir Ed joined primary school students in Hertfordshire in a baking lesson (Yui Mok/PA)
Before getting going again in early June with an assault course attempt in Wadhurst, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)
This was followed later in the month by wheelbarrow racing at Huish Park, home of Yeovil Town Football Club in Somerset (Will Durrant/PA)
Sir Ed continued his eye-catching campaign playing frisbee during a visit to Crowd Hill Farm, in Hampshire … (Andrew Matthews/PA)
… and meeting staff at the Richard James Hub in London (Lucy North/PA)
The great outdoors beckoned on June 20 when Sir Ed helped out at Whinfell Quarry Gardens in Sheffield (Danny Lawson/PA)
He then demonstrated his creative side drawing a charcoal-on-pastel artwork at Harrogate College in Yorkshire … (Danny Lawson/PA)
… before attempting something altogether more prosaic, washing an ambulance during a visit to Wimbledon Ambulance Station in south-west London (Jeff Moore/PA)
Paddleboard yoga in Streatley, Berkshire, presented a challenge … (Jonathan Brady/PA)
… while pot-painting at Vale House, Marple Bridge, in Greater Manchester proved very entertaining (Peter Byrne/PA)
In peak campaign mode, Sir Ed took part in a bungee jump at Eastbourne Borough Football Club, East Sussex (Gareth Fuller/PA)
And inevitably fell from a surfboard during a visit to the Big Blue Surf School in Bude, Cornwall (Matt Keeble/PA)
British politics has hardly covered itself in glory in recent years. After the shame of the Corbyn years was punctured by the glorious Tory victory of 2019, we were subjected to a veritable gallery of disgrace: soaring immigration, Covid authoritarianism, Partygate, the Truss-Kwarteng interregnum, Gaza fanaticism. But the true nadir was the election of George Galloway in Rochdale.
Eamonn Holmes made a savage dig at new prime minister Keir Starmer this morning as he announced the results of the General Election on GB News. The former This Morning star, 64, branded the Labour leader "deadly dull" as he fronted his Vo
Boris Johnson says Nigel Farage played a "significant" role in the "destruction" of the Tories – while taking a swipe at those who ousted him from Number 10 back in 2022. Reform UK have secured five seats in the House of Commons including one for its leader Mr Farage, who succeeded in being elected in Clacton, Essex. Former prime minister Mr Johnson has dissected his party's performance in his Daily Mail column, saying the reasons why the Tories lost so many MPs were "complex" - but "the Yucatan asteroid in this catastrophe was obvious: it was Reform".
Who’s to blame? All of us – every Conservative MP in the last Parliament – has a share of the blame for this defeat. For my part, I made life harder for my Party by calling publicly for tougher policy on migration and defence, and so made negative headlines about Tory splits and factions.
The party has published what it plans to do in its manifesto, and it has a number of promises on the benefits system including Universal Credit and PIP
As one big Tory beast after another faced The Hunger Games on election night, one notably escaped the carnage. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, stood tall on the podium with the former and current Labour candidates whose vicious infighting had done him such a big favour.
Migrants in northern France celebrating Labour’s landslide victory have given Sir Keir Starmer a nickname and have vowed to cross the Channel at the “first chance” they get.
The most significant result from Thursday may not have been the wipe-out of the Conservative Party. It might not have been the rise of Reform UK either, or the strain put on our first past the post electoral system by two distinct blocs of Right-wing voters. Instead, it could turn out to be the return of sectarian politics to England.
Along Birmingham’s busy main roads the day after the general election, Palestinian flags flutter from lamp-posts as traffic roars past. A sign near a major roundabout reads: “Vote for genocide. Vote Labour.”
Few things in British politics seem familiar this morning. So it’s a welcome feature of this election that the pollsters have seemingly, once again, got it wrong. They overestimated the Lib Dems in 2010. They failed to spot a Tory majority in 2015. They largely didn’t foresee Brexit or Theresa May losing her majority. Now add to that list the apparent overestimation of Labour’s lead.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman comments on the Tories' "really bad result" in the election and warns of "big problems" being caused by Keir Starmer on the horizon, including scrapping of the Rwanda scheme. Ms Braverman refused to comment on suggestions that she would run for leader.
The rush to effect “change” in the next 100 days will become irresistible and the need to tear up the Labour manifesto to justify painful taxes on pensions, savings and “wealth” held in assets will play out.
COMMENT : In his touching goodbye speech on the steps of No 10, we saw a side to the (now) former prime minister we’ve rarely seen before – a distinctly human one