‘Project A30’: The Lib Dems’ plan to win over the South West

Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, has claimed his party could unexpectedly win back a host of Conservative seats in its former South West heartlands, announcing a last-minute “Project A30” election offensive.

Davey told the Financial Times in an interview that some of the seats had previously been seen as “out of reach” but were now in range if the party managed to raise more money from donors for last-minute campaigning.

On a visit to Yeovil in Somerset, he declared: “The Liberal Democrats are back in the West Country.” The town lies on the A30 trunk road, linking London to Land’s End, with a host of Lib Dem targets on either side.

With just over two weeks to go until polling day, Davey said he was shifting resources into seats such as St Ives, North Cornwall, Honiton, Torbay, South Devon and West Dorset, some of which were previously seen as “stretch” targets.

“In Somerset we are spoiled for choice,” he added, listing Yeovil and Taunton among the Tory seats being targeted in that county. Polls suggest the Conservative campaign is misfiring and that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party is facing heavy losses.

“Now that we’re broadening our scope and thinking we can do more, we just need more money,” Davey said. “There are financial constraints.” His aides said they were appealing to party donors to stump up £250,000 urgently to target the party’s message at wavering voters.

Many of the “western wedge” seats being targeted by Davey were previously held by the Lib Dems but were captured by the Conservatives in 2015, as the centrist party paid the price for going into coalition with the Tories.

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The Brexit referendum further alienated many West Country voters from the pro-European Lib Dems — the region voted firmly for Leave — but Davey said bonds were now being re-established.

He said in many seats, including Yeovil, there was a “muscle memory in the community” of voting Lib Dem. Paddy Ashdown, the late former Lib Dem leader, used to represent the Somerset town and is still revered locally, and his wife, Jane, is active in the campaign.

Some polls have suggested the Lib Dems could win more than 50 seats on July 4 if the Tory vote collapses. The Lib Dems are polling at 10 per cent nationally, but are adept at piling up votes in target seats, aided by tactical voting.

The party is attempting to funnel its resources to about 80 seats where it came second to the Conservatives at the last election, as well as one seat, Sheffield Hallam, where they are going head-to-head with Labour.

“We weren’t expecting this, but things are now looking really good,” Davey said, speaking on his “Yellow Hammer One” campaign bus. “Seats we thought were slightly out of reach are coming into reach, particularly in the West Country.”

Davey accepts that the Conservatives will now try to persuade wavering voters to stick with Sunak’s party to avoid giving Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer a “supermajority” in parliament, a tactic he calls “Project Fear”.

“We’ve been thinking about it a lot,” he said. The “scare tactic” — as Davey calls it — worked well for the Conservatives against the Lib Dems in 2019 when the Labour leader was the more leftwing Jeremy Corbyn. 

Starmer may appear to be a less scary prospect to voters in southern and South Western seats, but Davey said he would counter the Conservative campaign tactic with what he called “Project Hope”.

The party has campaigned on issues such as personal care, the NHS and sewage in waterways. Davey also claims he would push a Labour government to go further in rebuilding UK ties to the EU, even though he barely talks about it on the campaign.

During a visit to Yeovil Town football club, Davey participated in a bizarre wheelbarrow race in which — to nobody’s surprise — a yellow barrow managed to beat a blue one. It is the latest in a line of stunts designed to raise his profile and that of his party.

In Yeovil town centre many people are only vaguely aware of Davey, but two issues keep cropping up. “I honestly don’t know who he is,” said David Monk, a retiree, in the town square. “Oh, hang on — is he the idiot who fell off a surfboard?”

Davey would quibble that it was actually a paddle-board, but he argues that such photo opportunities — shown widely on TV bulletins and social media — have helped to “win a hearing” for the Lib Dems to talk about their policies.

“We’ve got a very serious set of ideas but we need to engage with people, we need to grab their attention, and we need to show that we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he argued.  

The second thing that people in Yeovil appear to know about is a highly personal election broadcast made by Davey in which he talks about caring for his disabled son, a story that he says resonated with other carers.

Becky, a palliative care nurse, is one of a number of people who appear to have noticed: “I don’t know much about him apart from that advert. He seems like a decent chap. It struck a chord.”

A caption was amended after first publication to correct the spelling of Yeovil Lib Dem candidate Adam Dance.