The Liberal Democrats will focus on tax cuts and Europe as they look to get voters on side before the next general election, Sir Ed Davey has said.
They have already called for a 10p fuel duty cut until at least Christmas to ease cost-of-living pressures and Sir Ed said further proposals would be unveiled in his leader’s speech at the annual party conference in Brighton.
The party also wants to rejoin the EU’s customs union and single market, which they say will boost the UK’s economy and allow them to cut taxes.
Sir Ed told the Press Association: “I think we could get back in really quickly, and we’d also have a really strong hand because we’re talking about not just a growth partnership, but a defence partnership too.”
He dismissed that the EU knowing that the party’s plans hinge on rejoining would weaken their hand.
“The thing about trade is it helps both sides; it’s a mutual thing, so it would both improve the British economy and improve the European economy.”
The party believes a return to the customs union and single market could be negotiated within a year, his deputy Daisy Cooper has said.
The party is seeking to firm up a platform for the next general election at its four-day conference, and as polling has consistently put the Lib Dems behind the other major parties, Sir Ed said he doesn’t look at them, insisting “What I look at is elections”.
They are facing a challenge to cut through to the public amid a crowded field that sees them competing for attention with Labour and the Conservatives as well as rising parties such as Reform UK and the Greens.
Few have seen Sir Ed on social media, heard from the Liberal Democrats, or know what they stand for, polling from More in Common suggested.
The cost of living is hitting people hard.
For years, millions of people put up with Conservative incompetence because they hoped that at least their tax bill might go down.
Now, people have been left high and dry by a Labour government continuing the same tax-and-spend doom… pic.twitter.com/WHWmtGimJf
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 20, 2026
The party was described as “weak” by more than half of those surveyed in recent YouGov polling.
And Sir Ed is facing concerns from within as MP Roz Savage said the party was “struggling for relevance” and Devon council leader Julian Brazil said the Lib Dems were “not saying the things that people can relate to”.
Sir Ed said this was a result of the party’s growth, after it won a record 72 seats in Parliament in 2024 and took council seats in local elections.
“We’ve grown really fast in recent years under my leadership. Record number of MPs. We’re running more councils than the Conservatives – councils up and down the country.
“Really proud of that record and it means when you have a bigger party, you can’t please everyone all the time,” he told BBC Breakfast.
He insisted he would lead the party into the next general election.
Party members also voted on their stance on transgender guidance which sets out single-sex toilets and changing rooms must be used on the basis of a person’s sex at birth.
They passed a motion expressing concern over the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s code of practice which came into effect earlier this year, calling for it to be replaced with guidance that is “inclusive, workable and ensures everybody can safely access public facilities and providers are protected from legal risk”.
Sir Ed earlier said he backed the move.
“What we’ve been saying is we don’t think this guidance is fit for purpose. We’re not challenging the law. We’re saying the guidance doesn’t help,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The Lib Dems have also pledged they would plough £600 million into maternity care, including by bringing in one-to-one midwifery for every woman in labour, which they say a drop in negligence payouts that has totalled £1.3 billion in past years would pay for.
And they would tax big tech firms to fund a new online crime agency to tackle offences involving deepfake revenge porn and drugs and weapons trafficking, with plans to raise around £250 million a year.
Home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson, MP for Cheltenham, donned a pair of smart glasses on stage as he spoke about a Lib Dem push for legal loopholes to be closed around covert filming, which members are set to vote on later on Monday.
“You may know them as, let’s be honest, perv goggles, freak glasses, stalker specs,” he said calling them “more than a benign piece of tech that provides a little bit of fun”.
“The technology in these glasses could be a force for good, but it needs regulation because women and girls are being secretly filmed and sexualised without consent, for clicks and for profit,” he said.