Sir Ed characterises this as an “ABC election” (Anyone but the Conservatives) and is pitching his party as the “Tory removal service” in places where the Lib Dems are the principal challenger.
It is his party, more than Labour, that poses the greatest personal threat to several high-profile Tories. Cabinet names in the Lib Dems’ sights include education secretary Gillian Keegan in Chichester, culture secretary Lucy Frazer in east Cambridgeshire and Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, who has a hugely vulnerable majority of less than a thousand in Cheltenham. The highest value target on the Lib Dem hitlist is Jeremy Hunt who can feel their hot breath on his neck in Godalming and Ash in Surrey. The chancellor has injected more than £100,000 of his own money into his local Tory party. At a recent charity event, he jokingly urged opponents of the government to back Labour in his seat to split the anti-Tory vote and help him fend off “those bastards, the Lib Dems”.
Team Davey believes that targeting senior Tories is good for attracting coverage, rustling up donations and attracting voters with the thought of punishing the Conservatives for the last 14 years by ejecting a cabinet name. It also presents a headache for Tory campaign planners by pinning down high-profile Conservatives in local struggles to save their skins.
ir Ed is fishing among two pots of voters. One group are the potential switchers, people who voted Tory in 2019 and have since become estranged from them. Canvassing and polling suggests to the Lib Dems that quite a lot of these voters are currently calling themselves undecided. It is conjectured that many of them may not start breaking decisively one way or another until the final weekend of campaigning. The Lib Dems have clocked up some spectacular byelection gains by capitalising on discontent among these voters. They need to do the same on 4 July.
The other challenge for the Lib Dems is to impress the virtues of tactical voting on left-leaning voters in the targeted seats. One of the leadership team says: “It’s critical, really critical, that Labour supporters in these seats know they have to vote Lib Dem if they want to get change.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/02/you-can-laugh-all-you-like-at-ed-daveys-antics-if-they-restore-the-lib-dems-clout