Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey has led the Liberal Democrats since 2020 and enters the 2026 local election cycle as the party framing its pitch as a binary choice between the Lib Dems and Reform UK -- a deliberate attempt to crowd out Conservative incumbents in southern English seats where Reform is taking Tory votes. Davey launched the 2026 local campaign targeting Stockport as the primary prize for outright council control, with 684 Lib Dem seats up for defence nationally.

Davey won the leadership after the party reduced to 11 seats in the 2019 general election. He repositioned the party through a series of high-profile local campaigns -- notably the Tiverton and Honiton and North Shropshire by-elections -- that established a template of targeting disaffected suburban Tory voters. The strategy bore national fruit at the 2024 general election, when the Lib Dems returned 72 MPs, their best result in over a century. He was knighted in 2025.

His 2026 framing -- Lib Dems versus Reform -- serves two purposes: it de-legitimises the Conservative Party as a relevant force in areas the Lib Dems now hold, and it positions the party as the moderate alternative for voters alarmed by Reform UK growth. The party is defending a significantly enlarged base from 2022 and 2023 local victories, making the 2026 cycle as much a test of consolidation as expansion. Davey has become known for publicity stunts (paddleboarding, fairground rides) that generate media coverage in target seats -- a deliberate contrast to the party traditional image of po-faced centrism.