Lib Dems dive head-first into final week of campaign
Watch: Ed Davey bungee jumps for latest stunt
- Published
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has begun the final week of a general election campaign defined by stunts by bungee jumping, in a bid to encourage voters to "take the plunge" and vote Lib Dem.
Sir Ed was filmed shouting "vote Liberal Democrat" while dangling in the air after his jump in Eastbourne - one of the so-called "Blue Wall" seats he hopes to take from the Tories at the election.
The party leader has performed stunts like paddleboard falls and rollercoaster rides to capture media attention throughout the campaign to highlight Lib Dem priorities like pollution, mental health and social care reforms.
Speaking to reporters after his bungee jump, Sir Ed said: "I've never done that before."
He added: "I'm asking people to do something many people have never done before, which is vote Liberal Democrat this coming Thursday.
"So, take the plunge. Vote for health and care, which is our top priority unlike everyone else, vote for a proper economic policy, vote to end the sewage scandal and action on climate change."
The Lib Dems are hoping to reclaim the position of Britain’s third-largest political party on 4 July.
Some projections show Sir Ed's party could overtake the SNP for the first time since 2015 in Thursday's poll.
According to a senior Lib Dem source, the party is hoping to beat its 1997 record by winning 26 new seats to make 34 Lib Dem MPs in the next parliament.
Sir Ed's team remain tight lipped on the actual number of seats they hope to take.
The highest number of Lib Dem MPs was 62, achieved after the 2005 election under Charles Kennedy.
Party strategists are trying to lock down the votes of “traditional” Lib Dems while hunting down “Conservative switchers” who once believed voting Conservative ensured common-sense governance - but no longer see it that way.
While the Lib Dems are mainly targeting the Conservatives, senior officials claim the vote for Labour is “softer” than it was for Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997.
Another big source of Lib Dem votes used to be Remainers. But the party strategists believe they’re thinking less about Britain’s relationship with Europe and more about the state of public services and sewage.
Which is why, in between the stunts, Sir Ed talks endlessly to reporters about the NHS, social care, and clean water.
Sir Ed served in multiple cabinet roles in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition after 2010, but has ruled out ever entering government with the Conservatives again if the election defies expectations and produces a hung parliament. He has not ruled out power-sharing with Labour.
The Lib Dems have put plans to tackle problems in the NHS and social care at the heart of the party's manifesto - titled For A Fair Deal - centring much of the campaign around Sir Ed's own personal experiences of caring for his mother and disabled son.
In its manifesto, Labour has pledged to cut NHS waiting times, promising 40,000 more appointments every week, as well as 8,500 additional mental health staff.
The Conservatives say they would increase NHS spending above inflation every year, as well as recruiting 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors, as well as promoting pharmacies.
Sir Ed's stunt came on the day the Lib Dems pledged to spend £440m annually on bereavement payments for widows and children.
By 2028/29, the party said it will double funding for Bereavement Support Payments to ease the financial burden of losing a partner.
Currently, bereaved families receive up to £3,500 and £350 monthly for 18 months.
The party says it would extend the time bereaved families receive support, though full details are not yet provided.
Sir Ed who opened up about his personal experience of losing both parents at a young age, branded current provisions as "heartless and short-sighted".
The party leader lost his father to cancer when he was four, and his mother to illness as a teenager, after caring for her throughout school.
"Given how important it was to me and my family, I need to fight for others like me," he told the BBC.
You can find a full list of candidates for the Eastbourne constituency here.