Dems

• Plaid Cymru staat op het punt de macht in Wales over te nemen en de SNP behoudt die in Schotland, maar Reform boekte grote winst in beide landen • Verkiezingen 2026 live: laatste nieuwsupdates • Volledige resultaten uit Engeland, Schotland en Wales

• Partij boekt winst in Portsmouth en Richmond upon Thames bij lokale verkiezingen, maar verliest een Schots bolwerk • Verkiezingen 2026 – live updates • Volledige resultaten uit Engeland, Schotland en Wales

With voter loyalty a distant memory, the Lib Dems’ cost of living policies and criticism of Trump could gain them ground It has been an election buildup dominated by the rise of Reform UK and the Greens, and the contrasting woes of Labour and the Tories. But there is a chance that on 8 May the Liberal Democrats, largely ignored in recent weeks, could wake up as the biggest party in English local government.This is just one of several paradoxes for the party’s leader, Ed Davey, and his team. They are fifth in many national polls, with a rating barely changed from 2024. But Lib Dem bosses are sanguine, convinced that UK politics is now so different, so atomised, to make headline polling almost irrelevant. Continue reading...

Ed Davey attacks Reform calling it ‘Maga franchise’ and says Elon Musk funnels far-right ideas into UK via XUK politics live – latest updatesThe Liberal Democrats are pushing for a ban on MPs accepting payments from X as part of a proposed wider crackdown on what Ed Davey will call a “serious threat” to UK democracy from Donald Trump’s US and other countries.Announcing the plan on Tuesday, the Lib Dem leader renewed his attacks on Reform UK – a series of whose MPs have taken money from X – calling it “a franchise of Maga politics” rather than a British political entity. Continue reading...