Not just ‘Nice Guy Eddie’: Lib Dems eager for leader to show radical side at party conference

There is a sizeable group of Lib Dem MPs, and members of its frontbench, who openly question whether their problem is not with the message, nor the strategy, but with Davey, the leader.

“I think he’s holding us back,” said one of the party’s spokespeople who is planning a tilt at the leadership if a race is triggered.

“The atmosphere is ripe for a leadership challenge,” another MP, talking of the frustrations in the party, said.

“But we don’t have a Wes Streeting,” they added, referring to Labour’s defence secretary whose challenge to Sir Keir Starmer undermined his leadership.

“There is a lack of an ambitious, young alternative putting themselves out there to show a different way.”

Davey’s supporters in the party point to his experience of government and insist there is no one better to replace him. They also dismiss national polling as the way to measure the Lib Dem’s standing.

“I’d like to be on more than 10% [in national opinion polls],” one frontbencher loyal to Davey said. “But I’d prefer to be on 10% and looking at winning 80 seats than on 15% and winning four.”

“You look at our ground game and you look at our local election results,” another said, pointing to gains the party made at this year’s May elections. “That shows you that our strategy is definitely working.”

But frustration bubbles away. And plenty in the party are looking at alternatives to Davey, like the party’s President Josh Babarinde or Cooper, and question why they aren’t setting out alternative visions.

Both will give speeches at the conference, as will the home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson.

So what of Cooper, who many consider the frontrunner to succeed Davey?

“Ed is absolutely the right leader,” she tells me. “I really like being deputy leader to Ed. We work together as a team. I think we complement each other.”

Would she want to be leader? “There is no vacancy,” she says.

Ever? “There is no vacancy at the moment,” she replies.