Liberal Democrats Plan to target the blue wall

The Lib Dems have set their sights on the blue wall following polls show torys losing many seats

Jade Heath Politics Editor

The general election is currently at the forefront of Liberal Democrat issues. To gain more seats, candidates at a recent Staffordshire conference were encouraged and determined to oust Conservatives in commuter belt areas”. For reference, a ‘commuter belt’ area is one that surrounds a city to which people travel to work - in this instance, it can be deduced that the Liberal Democrats are referring to London. The strategy Lib Dem leader Ed Davey is now adopting differs from his predecessor Jo Swinson, whose aims aligned more with outright winning a general election. The 2019 election saw the party take a pro-Remain Brexit stance, where they promised to revoke it without a referendum. This strategy ultimately failed and resulted in Swinson losing her East Dunbartonshire seat. 10 other MPs also lost their seats which left the Liberal Democrats with only 11 MPs.

Davey instead wants to target the “blue wall”, which generally refers to Conservative constituencies in the South of England. They want to position themselves as the main Tory opposition in areas where Labour are unlikely to be successful. These areas are “key battlegrounds”. In showing their support for this strategy, Layla Moran, Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon has labelled it as “very focused” on “seat-by-seat”. Lib Dems have also proved to be popular in these areas in by-elections which indicates that this detail-oriented approach could generate more success than previous strategies. However, there are concerns that their by-election success was due to negative feelings towards previous Conservative leader Boris Johnson, rather than the party itself. A former Lib Dem special advisor, Sean Kemp, has stated that current leader Rishi Sunak is considered “less naturally divisive” and that he “gives off a more friendly face”. Nevertheless, Davey has been consistently outspoken against the Conservative party as a whole, which could help combat this problem. In November, he argued that the party’s political infighting should be considered a “betrayal of the British people”, given the current cost of living crisis. In the same speech, he stated that the Lib Dem political focus will be on domestic issues that the Conservatives have arguably neglected or worsened: the economy, windfall tax, the NHS, and social care.