This is the conference the Liberal Democrats didn’t really expect to have. For all that the party had its leaflets and literature ready to go in case Rishi Sunak called a May election, like most Westminster watchers the assumption based on the Tories’ dire poll numbers was that he would wait until autumn, and that election campaigns would inevitably mean a slimmed-down conference agenda.
Instead, the Lib Dems are here in Brighton on a victory lap. With temperatures in the 20s and a water-front conference venue, there is a summer holiday atmosphere even before you take into account the crowds of laughing members.
In terms of an actual agenda, it has been pointed out to me that the programme is remarkably light. In the era of “vibes-based politics”, this is very much a vibes-based conference – and the vibes are good. The party is making full use of the seaside: on Sunday Ed Davey was snapped playing beach volleyball with a group of young carers, while on Monday the new Torbay MP Steve Darling and his guide dog Jennie promenaded down the sea front with some fellow guide dogs, including one puppy in training.
The question at the heart of this conference is: what now? The Liberal Democrats have reason to celebrate. Their four-and-a-half-year recovery from the humiliation of the 2019 election paid off; with 72 MPs, they are a stronger force in politics than ever before. But what do they want to be a force for?
It is notable that the theme of this conference, in so much as there is one, is clearly health and social care. This was the subject of Monday’s keynote, delivered by the party’s deputy leader and spokesperson on health and social care, Daisy Cooper. She spoke movingly about her own battle with Crohn’s disease, revealing she was initially given four days to live, then later told she would recover but never be able to work again. Cooper said the NHS “gave me my life back” and stressed that “health is about individual freedom” – fundamental to Liberal values.
It will also be the subject of Davey’s speech later today, in which he will say his party “will offer people hope on health”. When I met with the Lib Dem leader on Monday afternoon, the conversation came back to the NHS again and again. When I asked what his focus would be for PMQs each week, he told me: “We want to make sure we’re making the case for Liberal Democrat priorities – you will see me asking a lot of questions about healthcare.” (You can read the full interview here, and listen to the latest You Ask Us episode of the NS Podcast, in which I discuss Davey’s PMQs strategy so far here.)
It is interesting that health is now obviously top of the list of “Liberal Democrat priorities”. In one way, it’s not surprising – the NHS was a key area of voter concern, second only to the economy, in the run-up to the last election, and it’s an issue on which the Conservatives in particular lack credibility, given how disastrous waiting times became on their watch. For a party specifically targeting disillusioned Tory voters in formerly “Blue Wall” seats (Davey has more to say on that in my interview too), it’s a powerful talking point.
But the focus also shows how much the central Lib Dem strategy has changed since the 2019 election, which the party fought on a platform of rejoining the EU. In fact, Brexit has been surprisingly absent in Brighton this time around. There are some Brexit talks at the fringe events and a few EU flags, but while the party’s position is still that the UK needs to seek a much closer relationship with Europe, it very much isn’t the headline. The EU was barely mentioned in the official conference programme, except for some points on rules for touring musicians and discussions of a youth mobility scheme. In contrast, there is a reference to healthcare or the NHS on almost every other page.
This shift helps explain how the party was able to increase its MPs by a factor of 6.5 in just four and a half years, while its vote share remained virtually unchanged (11.5 per cent in 2019 to 12.2 per cent in 2024). The Lib Dems stopped talking so much about issues that might matter a huge amount to their members but are less salient (or, in fact, more divisive) among the wider population, and homed in with laser-like discipline on issues with the widest appeal. The result was that 2024 was the most efficient election in terms of the ratio of votes to seats the Lib Dems have ever had.
There is a slight tension at this conference as to whether this should still be the plan. From a Lib Dem central office perspective, it makes sense. One of the taglines is “finish the job” of knocking down the Blue Wall: almost all of the party’s new set of target seats are currently Tory-held, and speaking to members there was optimism that the next Conservative leader would move the party further to the right, making the Lib Dems even more attractive to centrist voters if they keep the emphasis on fixing the NHS and cleaning up Britain’s waterways. The Tories (who describe Lib Dems as “Japanese knotweed” because of the difficulty in getting rid of them once they move into previously Conservative areas) should be concerned.
But there is also a possibility that, heady with victory, the Lib Dems become more confident making an enthusiastic pro-EU case once again. As a party with almost as many MPs as the official opposition, some feel there is an opportunity to really press Labour to repair the damage done by Brexit. Keir Starmer doesn’t want to relitigate the Brexit wars, but this conference is full of people who do. And right now, they feel the political winds are in their favour.
Lib Dem conferences, one cheerful member told me, are usually “very weird”. This one isn’t. Next year… who knows.
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here.
[See also: More cash won’t save the NHS]
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