Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has launched an extraordinary attack on Nigel Farage, claiming the Reform UK chief would dismantle Britain’s strict firearms legislation and force schools to conduct mass shooting drills if his party won power at the next General Election.
In a highly controversial keynote address closing the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday, Sir Ed namechecked Mr Farage 30 times and attacked US President Donald Trump 24 times, warning delegates that “Trump’s America” would become the blueprint for “Farage’s Britain.”
The Lib Dem leader painted a dystopian picture of life under a potential Reform UK government, drawing parallels with controversial American policies on healthcare, gun control, and social media regulation. Imagine living in the Trump-inspired country Farage wants us to become,” Sir Ed told party activists. Where there’s no NHS, so patients are hit with crippling insurance bills. Or denied healthcare altogether.”
Most dramatically, he warned about the potential erosion of Britain’s gun control measures. “Where gun laws are rolled back, so schools have to teach our children what to do in case of a mass shooting,” the Liberal Democrat leader declared, referencing the stark contrast between British and American approaches to firearms regulation.
Sir Ed’s attack appears to reference comments made by Mr Farage more than a decade ago when, as Ukip leader, he described Britain’s handgun ban as “ludicrous.” Speaking on LBC radio in 2014, Mr Farage called for the ban to be lifted, arguing that “householders should be allowed to possess handguns if the weapon is kept at home in a box.
The Reform UK leader had particularly criticised the legislation introduced after the 1996 Dunblane massacre, which saw 16 primary school children and their teacher killed by gunman Thomas Hamilton. Mr Farage claimed at the time that “the knee-jerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practice, was just crackers.”
He had argued that “if you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns,” and claimed that gun crime had doubled in the five years following the handgun ban.
Reform UK sources immediately dismissed Sir Ed’s warnings as political scaremongering. Ed Davey squanders his big moment spouting total madness. The Lib Dems are an irrelevant laughing stock,” a Reform source told reporters.
The gun control debate forms part of a broader Liberal Democrat strategy to position themselves as the primary opposition to Reform UK’s populist politics. Sir Ed continued his assault, warning of a future “Where we pay Putin for expensive fossil fuels and destroy our beautiful countryside with fracking – while climate change rages on.
He also raised concerns about social media regulation, warning of a Britain “Where social media barons are free to poison young minds with impunity” and “Where the government tramples on our basic rights and freedoms, unconstrained by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Liberal Democrat leader’s speech represents a significant escalation in rhetoric against Reform UK, with Sir Ed claiming Mr Farage is “on the side of Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump” rather than the British people.
“That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain,” Sir Ed warned delegates, seeking to frame the next election as a choice between Liberal Democrat values and what he characterised as imported American extremism.
The attack on Mr Farage’s historical stance on gun control is particularly pointed given Britain’s successful track record on firearms regulation. Since the handgun ban was implemented following Dunblane, there has not been another school shooting in the UK, though experts caution that correlation does not necessarily prove causation.
When Mr Farage made his controversial comments in 2014, they were immediately condemned by senior police officials. Manchester’s chief constable Peter Fahy warned at the time: “We should all be grateful that we have got such tight gun control in this country – when you look at the States, it’s awful over there.”
Professor Peter Squires, a firearms policy adviser to the Association of Chief Police Officers, had described Mr Farage’s position as “irresponsible,” warning that relaxing handgun laws would “generate a demand” and “generate illegal traffic around that demand.”
Notably, as Reform UK leader, Mr Farage has not spoken about gun control, and the party’s current manifesto makes no mention of altering Britain’s firearms legislation. However, Sir Ed’s warnings appear designed to remind voters of Mr Farage’s previous positions and paint Reform UK as fundamentally out of step with British values on public safety.
The Liberal Democrats have spent their four-day conference attempting to establish themselves as the primary opposition to what they characterise as the rise of populist politics in Britain. Earlier in the conference, Sir Ed had already launched a broadside against Mr Farage, declaring: “Nigel Farage bad-mouths our country, insults our country, compares us to places like North Korea. He’s not in touch. He makes things up. He’s not a patriot.”
The party has also unveiled a series of policy proposals designed to contrast with what they see as Reform UK’s agenda, including plans for a windfall tax on banks to fund home insulation schemes, cigarette-style health warnings on social media apps, and new laws to prevent ministers from lobbying on behalf of foreign leaders – what they call “Trump-proofing” British politics.
Sir Ed’s focus on gun control and school safety taps into deep-seated British anxieties about American-style gun violence. The UK’s strict firearms laws, strengthened after Dunblane, are widely supported across the political spectrum and have contributed to the country having one of the lowest rates of gun violence among developed nations.
The Liberal Democrat leader also took aim at what he described as the broader cultural implications of a Farage-led government, warning of a Britain “Where Andrew Tate is held up as an example to young men. Where racism and misogyny get the tacit support of people in power. Where everything is in a constant state of chaos.”
Political analysts suggest the Liberal Democrats’ aggressive stance against Reform UK reflects both an attempt to solidify their position as defenders of liberal values and a recognition that Reform’s rise in the polls poses a threat to the traditional party system.
The Lib Dems have set themselves an ambitious target of outperforming the Conservatives at the next election, which would mark the first time in more than 100 years they had achieved such a result. With 72 MPs following their best election performance in a century, the party sees an opportunity to capitalise on what they perceive as a fundamental realignment in British politics.
However, the strategy of focusing so heavily on Reform UK and Mr Farage carries risks. By elevating Reform’s profile through constant criticism, the Liberal Democrats may inadvertently boost their opponents’ media coverage and appeal to protest voters.
The gun control debate, whilst emotionally resonant, may also seem somewhat abstract given that Reform UK has made no recent commitments to alter firearms legislation. Mr Farage’s comments are now over a decade old, made when he led a different political party with different priorities.
Nevertheless, Sir Ed’s warnings about the potential “Americanisation” of British politics under Reform UK leadership appear calculated to resonate with moderate voters concerned about political extremism and the preservation of British institutions like the NHS and strict gun control laws.
As the conference concluded, Sir Ed sought to position the Liberal Democrats as the guardians of what he called “Britain’s decent silent majority,” contrasting his party’s vision with what he characterised as the chaos and division that would follow a Reform UK victory.
The coming months will reveal whether this aggressive anti-Farage strategy can help the Liberal Democrats build on their electoral gains or whether it risks making them appear obsessed with a party that currently holds just five parliamentary seats.
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Image Credit:
Ed Davey addressing the 2018 Liberal Democrat conference, Brighton — photo by Keith Edkins, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
