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Ed Davey has warned Liberal Democrats that they are part of a fight for the country’s future against an “extremely well-funded” modern-day “far-right”.
Addressing Lib Dem conference in Brighton on Tuesday, Davey said the party faces “the fight of our lives” against a “far-right movement that is given oxygen, and heat, and fuel by politicians and parties who claim to be serious contenders to lead our country”.
Davey’s speech came amid growing pressure from within his party to give the Lib Dems a more distinct political offering to voters – and to make clear what they stand for. In an essay published days before the conference, one of his MPs, Roz Savage, claimed the party was “struggling for relevance” and failing to paint a “coherent picture of the country we are trying to create”.
In a new policy announcement, Davey pledged that a future Lib Dem government would take hundreds of thousands of people out of the higher rate (40p) tax band by raising the threshold to £56,000.
He also announced that the party would raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570 to £15,000, saying this would take more than 2m of the lowest-paid workers out of income tax completely.
Davey said he would fund these tax cuts using the economic growth achieved through his policy of rejoining the European Union’s Single Market and Customs Union.
Amid growing concern about AI models going rogue and posing a potential threat to humanity, Davey called for “a global treaty to press pause on super-intelligent AI now, before it’s too late”.
He compared the risks posed to civilisation by increasingly sophisticated AI models to climate change and nuclear weapons, telling the conference that the human species was facing “not just the fight of our lives” but engaged in a “fight for life itself”.
Throughout his speech, Davey sought to frame the Lib Dems as an opposing force to Reform UK, and repeatedly contrasted his party’s “community politics” with what he described as the divisive politics of Nigel Farage’s party.
“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,” he told the conference.
“With liberal community politics, we can answer people’s hopelessness and powerlessness. Not with a slogan, not with a scapegoat, but with hard work.”
One Lib Dem MP seated behind Davey during the speech told PoliticsHome it was “probably his best to date”, as he “articulated what liberalism means” alongside a “bold policy announcement”.
But another MP said that while the proposed tax cuts were welcome: “There’s just so much more we have to say. What people are looking for is not a cautious step-by-step approach to the next election, and the manifesto, but a sense of what it might be like to live in this future Britain, not just what we might have in our pockets.”
Party activist and former London mayoral candidate Rob Blackie, who is again running for his party’s London candidacy, said he was “disappointed by our pledge of tax cuts – which is not realistically possible given rising interest rates and the need to spend more money on cutting crime, the NHS and tackling climate change”.
Blackie praised Davey, however, for his “recognition of the incredibly high rents that Londoners face – and that Ed’s local council has announced plans to tackle this by building on an old golf course – exactly the sort of grey belt land that we should be converting to new housing”.
He added that Davey “is absolutely right to point out that closer links to Europe can boost our economy, tax revenues and the standard of living”.
