Tim Farron Says Lib Dems Must "Make Our Own Luck" At The Next Election
Tim Farron and his daughter were joined by Lib Dem leader Ed Davey on Lake Windermere during the general election campaign (Alamy)
6 min read
Liberal Democrat MP and former party leader Tim Farron has said the Lib Dems have to figure out how to “make our own luck” when considering their strategy for the next general election, and rely less on their political rivals making errors.
Lib Dem party conference is taking place over this weekend in Brighton and according to Farron, attendees are still “positively shell-shocked” after the party achieved a record general election result by winning 72 seats.
“We are in many ways the authors of our own success, and in some ways we were blessed by the mistakes of others and the opportunities that other parties perhaps provided for us,” he told PoliticsHome.
“So we haven't assumed that everything will be like that in the future and so it's how do we go and make our own luck?”
Farron was elected the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005, and was president of the party between 2011 and 2015 and leader between 2015 and 2017, before resigning because he felt “remaining faithful to Christ” was incompatible with leading the party. He was elected for the sixth time as the MP for the Cumbrian constituency with an increased majority – alongside many of his colleagues who have been elected for the first time.
“The transformation is quite something,” he said.
“The election result confers a new status upon us and so we've got to be prepared for probably a bigger and more interesting conference.”
This year will see more external organisations – charities, companies, and think tanks – descend on Lib Dem conference than the party has been used to in recent years. Farron hopes this is a sign of a turning point for the party where they begin to be seen as a credible alternative opposition.
“We will be the party of environmental progress, of civil liberties, of freedom, of strong public services, but we also want to be the party of business and recognise that the Conservative Party has become obsessed with hardline ideology to the expense of what makes an economy work well, whether it be the movement of capital or indeed the movement of labour,” he said.
“We have a huge opportunity to be the party that those who believe in fair and successful markets will move towards.”
Farron has been chosen to chair the Lib Dems’ 2024 General Election review, with the findings expected to be compiled in a report by the end of the year.
“I feel blessed to have been asked to be the chair of this election review, and not of the last one,” Farron joked.
“We mustn't just think ‘oh we did well, that's fine, no lessons to be learned except good ones’. It's about having a good and rigorous investigation into everything that happened in the run up to the election and during the election.”
The review will look into the timing of candidate selection, how the party shifted resource and focus in order to maximise the number of seats they won, and what their future approach might be to develop new target seats. The Lib Dems carried out a very targeted election campaign this year with the aim of taking control of the Tory ‘Blue Wall’ in the south of England.
“With maybe one exception in the last election, there were no Labour target seats at all, whereas next time round there really should be, and that will mean working our way from a much more distant position – but it's entirely doable,” Farron said.
Tim Farron was elected as MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005 (Alamy)
Current Lib Dem President Mark Pack previously said in an interview with PoliticsHome after the election that certain Labour-held areas around the country have become “much more electorally interesting” for the party, “now there is a Labour government”.
Another Lib Dem MP told PoliticsHome they felt the conversation about which Labour seats to target should have already started, identifying some areas of London, Sunderland, and Greater Manchester as potential starting points. They felt there was a "real opportunity" for the Lib Dems to start branching out to more urban areas.
Farron said he had been telling the party internally that while it was right to celebrate the result, it was “much less a triumph and much more a ticket to the big league”.
“So what do we now do with our credibility that we have because of the strength we have in Parliament?,” he asked.
“It's our job to therefore, in very primary colours, be the party with the best alternative solutions to a Labour government that actually focuses on what the British people want, that comes up with ideas that are radical and attractive and practical.”
He said he hoped the party could appeal to the “consciences of every voter” and that if the Labour Government proves to be “underwhelming”, the Lib Dems can be an option so that “people don't go looking for populist alternatives”.
“In our country, every liberal is a social democrat, but not every social democrat is a liberal. So you start to see the Labour Party, either instinctively or for political reasons, being tougher on asylum, being tougher on liberties and the right to protest, for example, than we would ever be.”
While Farron admitted the party had made “mistakes” when in coalition with the Conservatives, he said it showed they were determined to “not just be party of protest” but would “accept responsibility when it is given to us”.
“That's not to say that everything that happened was good, but it adds to our credibility that we're a party not just with a big presence in Parliament now, but a party that is not just happy to sit in opposition.”
As much as Farron would like the Lib Dems to “make their own luck”, their path to further electoral success depends to some extent on what direction the Conservatives take next after suffering a heavy election defeat on 4 Kily.
Referring to current Tory leadership frontrunners Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch, who are both seen as representing the right of their party, Farron said they had “read the electorate wrong”.
“For some reason they were obsessed with the five [seats] they lost to Reform and that is a foolish perspective to take.”
Farron hinted that if either Jenrick or Badenoch become leader, the Tories could continue on this trajectory of seemingly ignoring the voters they lost to the Lib Dems.
Speaking to PoliticsHome ahead of the conference, Farron said he could not predict where the most contentious points might appear, as he felt there was a unusual "level of coherence" among members and MPs that came from "a great affection and strong support for the leader".
"Nevertheless, we're Liberals, and as a point of principle, we will be awkward," he said.
"I just can't predict how that awkwardness will manifest itself this time, but it will definitely come about somehow."
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