‘Time is running out’ for Sunak, says Davey as Lib Dems launch election campaign

Time is “running out for Rishi Sunak”, Sir Ed Davey has said as the Lib Dem leader turned over a giant hourglass at the launch of his party’s local election campaign.

Accusing the Prime Minister of having “bottled” a May general election, Sir Ed told a crowd of party activists in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, that voters were “fed up with the Government” and felt “taken for granted by Labour locally”.

He went on to attack the Government’s record, saying it had “plunged our NHS into crisis”, exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis, and “trashed our precious natural environment”.

He said: “Rishi Sunak’s government is running out of road because people know it is time for change, and people are voting for us because it is time for the Liberal Democrats.

“We are listening. This year we’ve already knocked on more than a million doors. We’ve heard from you about all the things that are broken in our country right now.

“We’re ready to get to work and fix them.”

Last year, the Liberal Democrats gained 407 councillors, including in Hertfordshire, one of the areas the party has identified as a “blue wall battleground” where it can challenge the Conservatives.

While Sir Ed declined to put a number on the gains he hoped to make in May, he told the PA news agency that he was hoping to win seats across southern and south-western England.

He said: “There aren’t as many councillors up in those areas as in previous years, but in places like Dorset, in places like Wokingham, places like Tunbridge Wells and a number of other places, we’re very confident that we can take a lot of councillors off the Conservatives.

“People are really fed up with the Conservatives. Many of them want a general election but they’ve got here a chance on May 2 in the local elections to send the Government a message and I think in many areas they’ll vote Liberal Democrat to do that.”

In London, where Sadiq Khan has urged Lib Dem supporters to back him to prevent Conservative Susan Hall winning the mayoralty, Sir Ed told PA his party’s candidate, Rob Blackie, had “a much more ambitious agenda” compared with Mr Khan’s “poor record”.

Lib Dem rallies in recent years have been marked by a series of stunts, including knocking down a wall of blue bricks with a yellow hammer, bursting a blue bubble and, on Wednesday, turning over a giant hourglass.

But Sir Ed denied that his party was becoming “defined by gimmicks”, saying: “What I like is a little bit of fun, and if you have a serious message behind that fun I think that can be communicated.

“We’ve made it clear that in the blue wall, with those blue wall stunts, it’s a battle between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in places like Hertfordshire, and we’ve also made it clear that we wanted an early election because this Government has just got to go.

“I think people want that as well. When I talk to people, they wish we could get change now, not have to wait until the autumn.”