Tory leadership hopefuls focused on ‘weird’ issues, Lib Dem deputy claims

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats has painted the Tory leadership contenders as extreme, saying they have “weird politics” and are obsessed with culture war issues voters do not care about.

Echoing the attacks used by Democrats against Donald Trump and JD Vance in the US presidential election, Daisy Cooper told journalists: “Their politics is weird, their choice of issues is weird, they talk about issues that are not relevant to most people in the country.”

Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, Ms Cooper added: “They are constantly focusing on culture war issues, the European Convention on Human Rights, when ordinary voters are saying ‘I can’t see a GP, I can’t see a dentist, my child is on a mental health waiting list’.

“And they are talking about these very niche issues, quite frankly, for the majority of the public and they just look incredibly out of touch.”

Ms Cooper also attacked the leadership contenders for not having addressed the NHS or social care so far during the contest.

The remaining MPs vying to succeed Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party are James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick.

A senior Lib Dem MP told The Independent that champagne corks would be flying in the party’s headquarters if Ms Badenoch, vying for the right-wing vote against Robert Jenrick, wins the contest.

And Ms Cooper said she does not think any of the candidates for the Conservative leadership "pose a threat at the moment’’ to the voters their party is talking to.

Ms Cooper’s comments came on the second day of the Lib Dems’ conference in Brighton, after leader Sir Ed Davey pledged the Lib Dems "will hold [the government] to account" when they disagree, and they believe there needs to be "reform and investment" in the health service.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Ed said his party "absolutely will challenge the government where we disagree with them", and pledged to be a "better opposition than the Conservatives".

He later added: "We’re worried that in the NHS debate, they’re talking about reform before investment when we think there needs to be reform and investment.

"So we will hold them to account, but we will be different from the Conservatives because being constructive means you have a different tone."