Sir Ed Davey has revealed the stunts that he didn’t manage to pull off on the General Election campaign trail this year – including sticking his arm in a cow’s rectum.
The Liberal Democrat leader became renowned for his headline-grabbing spectacles in several of the party’s target seats in the lead-up to polling day.
He was pictured paddleboarding in Windermere, splashing down a slip and slide in Somerset and bungee jumping in Eastbourne as he attempted to focus press attention on Lib Dem policies.
But in his final-day speech at the party conference in Brighton, Davey said there were two ideas that didn’t end up making the cut.
He told a packed room: ‘I’m not supposed to tell you what stunt ideas were rejected – not least because they’re still trying to persuade me to do them at the next election.
‘But I’ll let you into a little secret. It was only health and safety rules that stopped me putting my hand up a cow’s behind or wing walking on a biplane.’
The leader walked on stage to Abba’s hit Take A Chance On Me, and sang a few lines before beginning his speech on a stage packed with many of his 72 MPs.
He paid tribute to the work of activists around the country in delivering the party’s best ever election result, thanking his wife Emily for her support.
The couple met on a Liberal Democrat Housing Policy Working Group, as Davey revealed in an appearance on Question Time during the campaign.
He told the conference: ‘Since my revelation, I’m told our Federal Policy Committee has been inundated with applications for the next one.
‘So if you want to find love, don’t join Tinder. Join the Liberal Democrats!’
Much of the speech – like much of the election campaign and many of the previous events at the conference – focused on the NHS and social care, with Davey again speaking from his personal experience.
However, the line that got the loudest applause from the crowd was his call for a new youth mobility scheme between the UK and Europe.
It demonstrated how passionately the party members care about European Union membership and the chance of a future reversal of Brexit.
At a Q&A session with Davey on Sunday, an overwhelming majority of audience members raised their hands when asked if they believed the Lib Dems should be unequivocal about their support for Britain rejoining the EU.
The party leader did not directly mention Brexit or the EU in his 45-minute address this afternoon.
Following the Green Party conference last week, the Lib Dem event was the second to take place during parliament’s annual conference season.
Nigel Farage will address the Reform UK conference on Friday, shortly before Labour kicks off its own conference on Sunday. The Conservative event will begin a week later on September 29.
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