Ed Davey, seconds from splashing into a sewage-polluted Windermere (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
As the Labour and Conservative campaigns struggle to contain crises over candidacies, defections and gaffes, the Liberal Democrats have forged their own path.
On almost every day of the campaign so far, parliament’s fourth-largest party has reliably gone viral with footage of leader Sir Ed Davey enjoying another daft activity.
He’s been paddle-boarding in the Lake District, cycling in Wales, boating in Chichester, water-sliding in Somerset and baking with kids in Hertfordshire.
Has it sometimes looked more like an advert for vitamin supplements than an electoral campaign? Yes. But is that exactly what the Lib Dems planned? Also yes.
A well-placed party source explained to me the clever strategy behind the stunts, which have grabbed plenty of media and online attention.
This is well-trodden ground for the Lib Dems, who often struggle to generate the same level of policy interest as Labour and the Tories due to their size.
Organising a mad photo op attracts journalists, and once it’s finished, that means interviews can take place which focus on more serious matters.
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The Windermere paddle-boarding was organised to highlight reforming water companies who dump human waste in the area. (Was there any concern that Ed might become ill? I was told he’ll throw himself into anything, even if it was sewage-polluted.)
Today’s baking class in Frome, meanwhile, was organised to promote the Lib Dem policy of free school meals for all primary school pupils.
The party is ‘punching well above our weight in the first week’, the source said, partly because Ed Davey is prepared to look quite silly.
Readers in Scotland may remember the true master of the art: Willie Rennie, who led the Lib Dems north of the border for ten years before stepping down in 2021.
Over that decade, Rennie was tackled by a sheep in Fife; drove a Lamborghini around the Ingliston Racing Circuit; water-skied in Dunfermline; fed penguins at Edinburgh Zoo; took lessons in karate and curling; and lost his mind on an inflatable volcano slide at an adventure playpark.
But the ‘mad stunt’ technique took a back seat in 2019, when the party chose to run a more sober campaign around its determination to stop Brexit.
Ed Davey freewheeling down the street in Knighton, Wales (Picture: Jacob King/PA Wire)
The Lib Dem leader is having the absolute time of his life (Credits: Dinendra Haria/LNP)
So we’re watching several years of pent-up enthusiasm spilling out at this election.
Keep in mind, too, that the Liberal Democrats were – like much of Westminster – expecting a November election. All of the activities we’ve seen so far have been organised with just a few days’ notice, largely thanks to local parties and campaign groups.
For that same reason, we’re unlikely to see many of the elaborate props that have popped up in previous Lib Dem campaigns – at least in this early stage. I’m told they’re made by the mum of a party staffer. Perhaps she’s hard at work already.
No doubt more stunts will be on the way in the next few weeks to surprise the media, the electorate… and probably Ed Davey himself.
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