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Ed Davey has called for an emergency programme to clear the asylum backlog and treat refugees with compassion, before a Liberal Democrat conference where the party aims to target disillusioned Conservative and Labour voters.
Speaking before the gathering in Bournemouth, which begins on Saturday, Davey’s intervention on migration marks a broadening of the Lib Dem policy focus, which at the last election was carefully aimed towards a handful of areas such as health, care and pollution.
Later on Friday, party strategists and campaigners were due to meet to finalise a list of dozens of new target seats, primarily Conservative-held, with the party increasingly confident it can already hold on to the bulk of its 72 MPs.
Speaking to the Guardian, Davey said he hoped to change a toxic debate on asylum, and was critical of the government and the previous Conservative administration for allowing a huge backlog of unprocessed cases.
His party is calling for a Covid-style national emergency declaration to get rid of the 70,000-plus backlog within six months, including “Nightingale” processing centres and a tripling of the number of staff dealing with cases.
While this would need investment, Davey said, it would ultimately save money by getting rid of the need to accommodate people in hotels and other spaces – and was also, he argued, the fair thing to do.
“I think we’ve got to be clear that there are some asylum seekers who have no right to be here. But for those people who have got a right to be here, we should welcome them and say, ‘we’re going to treat you properly’,” he said.
“They’re often in hotels, which are pretty grim. A lot of them have got mental health problems, trauma they’ve escaped from, and are worried about relatives left behind.
“We need to either deport them if they’ve got no right to be here or say, ‘you do have a right to be here, get on with work’. So there’s a good humanitarian reason for doing what we’re saying. It also takes away a target for the likes of [the far-right activist] Tommy Robinson.”
While the Home Office has sought to tackle the backlog, Davey said progress was too slow. And he was scathing about what he said was a deliberate policy by the last Conservative government to let claims simply mount up.
“Kemi Badenoch should apologise for the Conservatives explicitly trying to build a backlog of asylum applications,” he said. “If you listen to what they said, it was absolutely deliberate. They were trying to use it as a deterrent – ‘if you come here, you’ll be in asylum limbo for years’. It didn’t work at all. It was very misguided and they should apologise.”
The Lib Dems go into the conference largely united, with Davey dismissing recent reports that some of his MPs were worried about a lack of focus from the leadership as complaints from “a pretty tiny number”.
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There is nonetheless a challenge ahead for a party that 15 months ago secured its best election result for a century, but can struggle for attention amid the rise of Reform and the struggles of the two main parties.
Davey’s response thus far has been to set a tone that hopes to draw in voters disillusioned with not only the Conservatives but also Labour, including a robust stance on Gaza and the US administration, which led to Davey boycotting this week’s state dinner for the US president, Donald Trump, over a perceived lack of effort towards peace.
Among the new target seats are a series of Tory-held constituencies where the Lib Dems came third behind Labour last year. The aim will be to argue that if a Labour candidate failed to win in a landslide election for the party, only the Lib Dems can do it next time.
Among seats being considered are East Surrey, held by Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, and Exmouth and Exeter East, where the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems finished within about 3,000 votes of one another last year.
Davey said there were 57 seats at the election where his party came third: “I genuinely think there’s a massive opportunity for us. With the right wing split and Labour disappointing, we could take votes from both and surprise people.”
The bulk of the Lib Dems’ gains in 2024 came from the Conservatives. Davey said with Badenoch “chasing Reform”, there was more scope for eating into their support: “Voters care a lot about health and care. They care a lot about the cost of living, energy bills, those sorts of things. I don’t hear the Tories making those arguments.”
