Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said on May 9 that his party offers an alternative to what he called the “extremes” of Reform UK and the Green Party, following local election gains in England and Scotland.
The announcement comes after the Liberal Democrats gained 153 councillors in England, taking control of Stockport and Portsmouth councils, as well as winning six seats in the Scottish Parliament. However, their overall gains were less than those made by Reform UK and the Green Party of England and Wales. The Liberal Democrats’ success was largely attributed to a drop in support for Labour and Conservative parties.
In some areas, such as Hull, a surge from Reform UK led to the Liberal Democrats losing control of the council. In Hampshire, efforts by Nigel Farage’s party prevented them from gaining ground against Conservatives. During a visit to Edinburgh on Saturday, Davey said: “There’s no doubt that British politics is in flux, the old two parties have failed, people looking for change.” He continued: “I think the option for British people is the change of the populist parties on the extremes of left and right – Reform and the Greens – or change that is true to British values from the Liberal Democrats. Many people voted for that type of change and I’m going to champion that.”
Davey also addressed questions about whether his party was losing momentum by highlighting consistent progress: “It was the eighth consecutive year of net gains for the Lib Dems in English council elections,” he said. He described their results in Scotland as their best performance in nearly two decades.
He added: “Clearly, the populist parties on the extremes of left and right have also done well. But I think the more that they are exposed and the more people see their policies, they will realise they are either pipe dreams or politics of division.” In several councils where they were already strong—such as Stockport, Portsmouth, Sutton, and Richmond-upon-Thames—the Lib Dems consolidated power amid Labour losses or declining Conservative support.
In other regions like East Surrey and West Surrey councils in south-east England, new victories reflected further shifts away from traditional major parties. Despite making nine seat gains on Hampshire Council itself, larger advances by Reform UK meant no single party achieved overall control there.
The Scottish Parliament election saw Lib Dems increase their representation to ten seats after wins over SNP incumbents in Edinburgh Northern; Strathkelvin & Bearsden; Sky; Lochaber; Badenoch—though they lost Shetland back to SNP. In Wales’ Senedd election Jane Dodds returned but remains her party’s only representative.
