Do we like Ed Davey?
Our score: 7 out of 10. On the right side of the issues that matter to us, with one real stain from his time as a minister and a shaky grip on his own party.
Ed Davey is the Liberal Democrat leader who ran the party to a record 72 seats in 2024. Before that he was a minister in the coalition government: postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012, then Energy Secretary. Both jobs come back to bite or boost him, depending on the day.
On the harm test, the big modern fight is trans rights. Davey has reaffirmed that trans women are women, and in September 2026 he said on Radio 4 he would vote for the Lib Dem conference motion calling for the EHRC single-sex guidance to be rewritten. The motion passed easily. Critics inside and outside the party, including his own brother, who wrote on LinkedIn that single-sex spaces are where women feel safe, disagree, and say so loudly.
That is a genuine split, and a nuanced one: in 2025 he accepted the Supreme Court ruling but questioned how it would be enforced, and he had not unequivocally backed trans people using facilities that match their gender identity. On the planet, as Energy Secretary he said Britain must lead on climate, though he also argued fracking was needed as a bridge from coal. We found no harmful words of his own, and no habit of working with people who push harm.
Lately the problem is closer to home. Charlie Maynard stepped down from the frontbench, reports suggested to force a no-confidence vote, and the party is polling around 11 per cent. No vote happened after a marathon meeting of MPs, and Davey stayed. Survived, yes, but not exactly a ringing endorsement.
In February 2026 he also apologised to Epstein's victims for praising Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in a 2011 Commons debate, according to GB News. Fair to him that he said sorry, though you could ask why it took until now. We couldn't open that article ourselves, so treat it as a lead.
The good stuff is real. He has made carers and young carers a signature cause, and his party has been loud on tackling Reform's brand of politics. Nothing nasty, a decent track record, one proper scar.