Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has ignited anger among his party's Members of Parliament by suggesting he would consider a post-election agreement with the Conservative Party. Davey appeared to open the door to a potential coalition with Kemi Badenoch's Tories in the event of a hung Parliament, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from within his own ranks.
MPs have voiced strong opposition to the idea, with one telling The Mail on Sunday that the party is still recovering from the previous coalition with the Conservatives. "I thought he would have learnt from the mistakes from when we last went into coalition with the Tories," the MP stated. "How can he talk about propping up another party when he's not sorted out what his own party stands for?"
The controversy stems from comments made by Davey on BBC Radio 5 Live last week, where he agreed with Badenoch that no single party was likely to secure a majority in the upcoming General Election. Davey, who served as a Cabinet Minister in the 2010-2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, highlighted his extensive experience in managing such situations.
Despite Davey later posting on X that it "made zero sense to work for years to beat Reform and the Conservatives just to put either of them in power," an unnamed Liberal Democrat MP asserted that he had indeed floated the possibility of another coalition. The MP added, "It has taken the best part of a decade for us to recover from that coalition. I don't think anyone in the parliamentary party would be happy with that now."
The internal dissent comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces accusations of orchestrating an "Establishment stitch-up" concerning social care. Cross-party discussions on the issue reportedly began on shaky ground last month, with Tory sources claiming Burnham provided only 18 hours' notice for a tripartite meeting involving the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, describing it as a "stunt."
