Ed Davey has said the Liberal Democrats’ performance in England’s local elections shows the party is best placed to challenge what he called the “extreme populist change” offered by Reform UK and the Greens. The party made gains in Portsmouth and Richmond upon Thames, while also losing a long-held Scottish stronghold.
In Portsmouth, the Lib Dems seized the city council, which had been under no overall control, seeing off a Reform challenge. In Richmond upon Thames, the party gained five councillors, all from the Greens, to take all 54 seats in the affluent London borough. Davey told the BBC that people were fed up with the Conservatives and Labour, adding: “Some are going to the extreme populist change, the sort of ‘burn it all down’ type change from Reform and the Greens. We offer a different form of change, which is ‘build it up’.”
Despite the eye-catching results, early figures indicated that the Lib Dems’ average support was down by three points on 2022 and 2024, raising questions about the party’s ability to make major national gains. In Hull, the party narrowly lost majority control of the city council, with Reform taking almost half the seats contested. In the north of England, the Lib Dems said they had been able to “hold their own” against the Reform surge.
In the south, the party continued its advance into former Conservative heartlands. In Sutton, the Lib Dems now hold 51 of 55 seats after the Conservatives lost all 20 of their councillors. The party was also set to take control of West Surrey, a traditional Conservative area and the home of senior Tory figures including Jeremy Hunt.
However, the picture was less positive in Scotland and Wales. The SNP gained the Shetland Islands from the Lib Dems, an area that had been represented by the Liberal party or the Lib Dems since 1950 at general elections. In nearby Orkney, the Lib Dems’ Liam McArthur was the first MSP to be returned to Holyrood, polling 70% of the vote, the largest share in the Scottish parliament’s history.
