It wasn’t just the media coverage, as Reform’s plans to deport thousands of legal migrants stole the headlines.
It seems incredible to the Lib Dem faithful that just over a year since their record haul of 72 seats – making them the third largest party in the Commons – it is Farage and his four MPs who are making all the political running.
Lib Dem insiders, however, are insistent that they have a plan to grow the party’s standing. The first step? Overtake Kemi Badenoch’s moribund Conservative Party.
‘Operation Leapfrog’
The approach, internally dubbed “Operation Leapfrog”, involves tempting One Nation, remain-voting Conservative voters who dislike Farage to switch to the Lib Dems. Once that’s completed, they can set their sights more firmly on hauling in Labour and Reform.
While Labour and the Tories have seen their poll ratings fall, and Reform’s has risen, the Lib Dems have remained steady at around 13 per cent since the election.
The Lib Dems were unchanged on 13 per cent – meaning it would only take a small poll bump to put them into third behind Labour and Reform.
One MP, representing a seat which was held by the Tories until 2024, told The i Paper: “When you speak to voters, they just never mention the Conservative party at all.”
The Lib Dems are to be more vocal in their criticism of Elon Musk and Donald Trump(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The plan by party strategists is to emphasise that the Lib Dems are more aggressive in their attacks on the likes of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Elon Musk than any other party, making them the natural home for voters who dislike the right and favour closer ties to Europe.
But there are dangers. One backbencher called for the Lib Dems to accept that to win over voters from Reform, it would be necessary to admit that some of their complaints, particularly on immigration, are valid.
And there are question marks over what the party actually stands for on the economy, which voters usually name as their most important election issue. “We’ve got a strong message on the NHS and care, and on rivers obviously,” an insider said. “But on the economy, we definitely need to find a way to be more coherent.”
“That’s what happened with Boris Johnson – we kept saying he was totally awful and voters said hold on a minute, give him a chance. Then when he got in they realised he actually was awful.”
“They’re doing well,” he said, “but it’s hard to see how they can build on this any further.”
The big barrier is that much of the Lib Dems’ electoral success has been built on hyper-local campaigns and tactical voting, rather than the party’s national policies.
‘Reform Watch’
Nigel Farage is joined on stage by Dame Andrea Jenkyns winner of Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty (L), and Sarah Pochin winner of the Runcorn and Helsby by-election (R) as Reform UK celebrate historic local election victories on May 02, 2025 in Paddock Wood, England. (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images)Insiders boast they are doing “better than ever” in council elections, with the party having won more seats than both Labour and the Conservatives for the first time ever in the 2025 local elections.
Delivering their findings at the Conference, the group said the key to taking on Reform was providing a positive vision and tackling what the Lib Dems claim is their misinformation.
Reform would deny that their statements are untrue.
But strategists have warned privately that it may take years for voters to notice. “Most voters can’t see this sort of thing; they have to actually feel it,” one councillor said.
Sir Ed Davey batting during a game of beach cricket with LibDem MPs beside the famous beach huts at West Undercliff Promenade, in Bournemouth, Dorset, ahead of his speech at the Liberal Democrats autumn conference. He has come under fire for his ‘bullsh*t stunts’ (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
Getting their message in the media has become one of the biggest concerns for the Liberal Democrats at this conference.
Set to the tune of “The Wild Rover”, the “The Impartial Media Song” included the lyrics: “At Liberal leaders I happily sneer, despite them returning with MPs galore, I’ll cover the party in detail no more… I’ll cover Reform in the way that they like.”
They recently went public with their claim that the national broadcaster is unfairly denying them coverage, with Davey reportedly meeting the BBC Director General Tim Davie in July to complain. The BBC said at the time that the Lib Dems’ greater number of MPs had led to more coverage.
Ahead of the conference, one Lib Dem MP told The i Paper there was a “huge amount of disquiet. We’re not cutting through… none of the messages are landing”.
‘Niall Garbage’
This became evident from the first night of the conference, when Jess Brown-Fuller MP joked at an opening rally that the party spoke to much about Farage, and that she’d refer to him as “Niall Garbage”.
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But she framed the threat of Farage as an opportunity for the Lib Dems, adding: “They leave a space wide open for a progressive party, and it’s our job to fill it.”
“So get outside and get knocking on doors, because the two-party system is finished. The people are asking, they’re begging, for a progressive alternative, and we as a party have a brave, bold and better vision for the United Kingdom.”
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