Ed Davey launched the Liberal Democrats' local election campaign with the framing "it's the Lib Dems or Reform," positioning the party as the primary vehicle for English voters who oppose Reform UK but are unwilling to vote Labour or Conservative. The party defends 684 seats in the May 2026 local elections; Stockport is identified as the specific target for outright council control, requiring a handful of additional wards.
The binary framing is a replication of the squeeze strategy the Liberal Democrats deployed at the 2024 general election. In constituencies where the Lib Dems were not historically competitive, the party successfully argued that a vote for any other party was effectively a vote for whichever opponent the voter most wanted to stop. In 2024, the opponent was the Conservatives. In 2026, the framing substitutes Reform UK, which is polling in the 20s nationally and credibly threatening council seats in suburban and semi-rural England.
The funding asymmetry is real. Reform UK's Q3 2025 donations and Q4 2025 spending gave it campaign resources that dwarf the Liberal Democrats' local election budget. The Lib Dems are not trying to outspend Reform; they are trying to consolidate the anti-Reform vote in their existing territory before Reform's resources can be deployed at scale in seats where they are genuinely competitive.
Stockport is the specific test case. The Lib Dems are within a handful of wards of outright control, meaning even a modest swing converts the target from aspiration to achievement. Outright council control delivers visible platform benefits, planning decisions, and a record to campaign on in 2028. A Stockport win frames the local elections as a Lib Dem success story regardless of the national picture elsewhere.
