Ed Davey has urged North East voters to reject “nasty, divisive politics” at next month’s local elections.
The Liberal Democrat leader was in Newcastle on Tuesday and said he believes his party can make a “real breakthrough” at May’s polls, despite competing with both the Greens and Reform to end Labour’s dominance in the region.
Lib Dems ran Newcastle City Council from 2004 to 2011 and have since been the city’s main opposition party, as they have in neighbouring Gateshead.
Critical elections
A critical set of ‘all out’ local elections are being held in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside on May 7 – meaning every single council seat in those Labour-run areas is up for grabs, rather than the usual one-third.
Some polling has put Reform UK on course for victory in those four councils, but Newcastle in particular appears tough to predict.
Multiple sources have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that they expect no party to claim a majority in the city, where Labour currently operates a minority administration on the council.
As he began a tour of the ‘Red Wall’, Mr Davey met with local Lib Dem councillors in Newcastle on Tuesday and planted flowers in a memorial garden dedicated to the victims of the Heaton Main Colliery disaster of 1815.
After speaking to residents at The Spinney, in High Heaton, the Kingston and Surbiton MP told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he believed the local election fight is “increasingly between us and Reform”.
He said that a vote for Nigel Farage’s party meant embracing what he called the “nasty, divisive politics” of US president Donald Trump.
Ed Davey comment
“I think most people who don’t want Reform are looking for the party that can beat Reform. To be frank, across big cities like Newcastle and Gateshead, if you don’t want a Reform council then you are going to have to vote Liberal Democrat.
“We have shown what we can do in the past, we had really good records when we ran these councils.”
The former energy secretary said the Lib Dems would cut fuel tax by 10p, reduce the cap on bus fares to £1, and bring down rail fares by 10%.
While the Lib Dems lead 74 councils across England and Wales, only a handful of those are in the North.
Mr Davey said that increasing the party’s presence across the North was “hugely important”.
He added: “Before the last election, the name of the game was getting rid of the Conservatives and it was quite difficult to take on Labour in the North East in that situation.
“However, Labour has done so badly and let people down. Now there is a very different political fight to what it was in the general election, and that is why I think we can make a real breakthrough – building on years of solid community work in the North East.”
Davey on Reform in Durham
He also took aim at Reform’s record in power in County Durham, where they won a landslide in last year’s local elections.
While Reform has limited this year’s council tax rise to 1.99% in Durham, lower than most areas, they have faced criticism for removing the total exemption from paying council tax for the county’s poorest households.
Mr Davey said: “What have Reform done [in Durham]? They have imposed council tax on the poorest for the first time ever and if people care about people who are less well off, do they really want to see Reform putting council tax on them? That is what they have done in Durham.
“Do they want to see community and neighbourhood services cut back to the bone? That is what they have done in Durham.
“Do they want to see the debt and borrowing of the council increase massively? That is what they have done in Durham.
“It is very bad financial management, it is nasty and divisive, and it is taking away services that people rely on. I think Reform’s record in Durham is shocking.”
Reform UK was contacted for a response.
Speaking at a campaign launch in Sunderland last month, Reform UK leader Mr Farage said he was “very pleased” that Durham’s Reform leadership had “managed to limit rises in council tax below 2%, below the rate of inflation”.
Deputy Reform leader Richard Tice said that the party’s 12 councils had saved more than £300 million in the past year and would find another £400 million over the next 12 months, with the party claiming to have delivered a £73 million saving on the controversial Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility incinerator.
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