Sir Ed Davey today attempted to woo disillusioned One Nation Tories with a pledge to raise the higher-rate income tax threshold from £50,270 to £56,000. The Lib Dem leader also promised to increase the basic-rate threshold from £12,570 to £15,000 and the additional-rate threshold from £125,140 to £130,000. Sir Ed argued that a ‘tax band designed for stockbrokers is now holding back teachers and nurses’. He declared: ‘That’s not fair. It’s not right.’
The proposed changes would, however, take eight years to deliver, coming into force only in the fifth year of the next parliament. The policy is also based on the proviso that Britain rejoins the EU single market and customs union, which Sir Ed insists would boost the economy by £17 billion. In an appeal to One Nation Conservatives who support net zero and remain desperately attached to the failing ECHR, Sir Ed claimed:
Millions of decent, moderate Conservative voters are getting [Badenoch’s] message, and they’re turning away – increasingly, to us. That’s what happens when you talk only to yourselves. You don’t just keep people out. You drive your own people away. Real Liberalism is rooted in seeing the value of every human being – not just the ones who share our appearance or our beliefs.
Today’s speech offered Sir Ed a significant opportunity to shore up his position
That message appeared to contradict the opening passages of the Lib Dem leader’s speech, in which he portrayed protesters against illegal migration in Dover and Portsmouth as the heirs to Oswald Mosley’s fascists, the National Front and the BNP. Sir Ed offered no consideration to legitimate grievances about large numbers of unvetted men from cultures hostile to liberal values being provided with free accommodation, food and healthcare, as well as the freedom to roam around local communities. Instead, he ranted about ‘the flames of hatred and intolerance’. The principal culprit for such supposedly unjustified anger was, inevitably, Reform.
The former cabinet minister said:
Cynical politicians like Nigel Farage are not just willing but eager to fan the flames of hatred and intolerance to make himself richer. To get himself into power… It is the worst of Trump’s America. We must not let it become Farage’s Britain.
Somewhat ironically, Sir Ed’s speech coincided with the US President’s address to the UN General Assembly. It’s not hard to guess where, faced with the diary clash, the British television cameras turned to.
The seemingly endless warnings about Reform and the far right were interspersed with another supposed set-piece announcement: a call for a global pause on superintelligent AI. No doubt the likes of Sam Altman and Elon Musk are quaking in their boots.
Predictably, the virtue-signalling on immigration, Reform-bashing and denunciations of Donald Trump went down well with the Lib Dem faithful in Brighton. Yet Sir Ed delivered much the same rhetoric at this conference last year. With YouGov polling this morning putting the party on a measly 12 per cent, it is clearly taking the Lib Dems only so far. The income tax announcement may appear enticing, but the small print exposes it as a fantasy predicated on the ridiculous idea of Britain rejoining the EU.
Today’s speech offered Sir Ed a significant opportunity to shore up his position amid growing internal frustration at his inability to cut through to the public. But after delivering an address that felt as though it had already been heard 100 times, while displaying a snobbish disregard for legitimate concerns about illegal migration, the Lib Dem leader is unlikely to find his fortunes changing any time soon.
Comments