Steal our ideas, Lib Dem leader urges government

It "would be great" if the new Labour government took on Liberal Democrat policies, party leader Sir Ed Davey has said.

After his party won 72 seats in the general election, he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme Labour in opposition "stole" his party's idea of a windfall tax on the big oil and gas companies.

He said the Lib Dems aimed to be a "constructive opposition" and to force the government to listen "by the strength of our arguments".

Sir Ed repeated his call for an emergency budget to improve health and social care, saying his party would be "the voice of carers".

After Reform UK won more votes but far fewer seats than the Lib Dems, Sir Ed also said he would go on arguing for "fair votes" and changing the electoral system to proportional representation.

"We want to improve our democracy, our politics is broken and so we're going to continue to make that case.

"People will get voted in who you don't agree with... That's democracy, that's allowing the people to express their will," he added.

The Lib Dems won their 72 seats - a record for the party - with 12.2% of the vote. Reform UK gained five MPs with 14.3% of the vote.

Reform chairman Richard Tice, the new MP for Boston and Skegness, told BBC Radio Lincolnshire the election results had "highlighted the absurd flaws in the first-past-the-post system".

"On a fair proportional representation system, we would get 94 seats, but instead we've just got five and that is patently unfair."

In his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Ed rejected suggestions that the size of Labour's majority meant the government did not need to pay attention to the Lib Dems.

He said: "We’ve managed over a number of years to persuade people to steal our policies and that’s a really good idea.

"It was the Liberal Democrats who argued for a windfall tax on the huge profits of the oil and gas companies, made on the back of President Putin in his illegal invasion of Ukraine.

"It was Liberal Democrats making that argument to help people with their energy bills, in three months after we made it, [the] Labour Party stole that idea.

"So, I’m hoping, as we argue for health and care, we argue for ending the sewage scandal, we argue for action on the cost of living, that the Labour government will realise that we actually have the best arguments, the best policies and take them, and that would be great."

Sir Ed said his party had put health and social care at the heart of its election campaign, and believed an emergency budget was needed "so we can start rescuing our NHS which is on its knees because of the Conservatives".

Since taking office, both the prime minister and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have described the NHS as "broken".

But the Lib Dem leader said he was disappointed that Labour’s manifesto had not mentioned family carers or unpaid carers "who are actually critical".

His party would "be the voice of carers and we will challenge the government to make sure that they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones", he said.