A Liberal Democrat council leader has said the party is “sleepwalking into irrelevance” and questioned whether Sir Ed Davey was the right leader.
Julian Brazil, the leader of Devon County Council, told the BBC the party was “lacking ambition” and “not saying the things that people can relate to”.
Asked whether Sir Ed was the right leader for the party, Brazil said “I wish he was” but “all the evidence is no”.
A Lib Dem spokesperson said the party was in “an incredibly strong position” under Sir Ed’s leadership because he was focused on the “issues that really matter” such as the cost of living and the health service.
“Under Ed’s leadership we had our best result for a century, and achieved a record breaking streak of remarkable local election results,” they added.
“We are the most united party in Westminster and with Ed as leader we will stop Reform and the Conservatives and change our country after a decade of failing governments.”
Sir Ed led the party to record 72 MPs in the 2024 general election, but it has slipped to fourth or fifth in national opinion polls, behind the Greens and Reform UK.
Brazil told the BBC the Lib Dems had “allowed other parties to go steaming past us,” adding that “something has to change within the party if we’re going to move to the next level and it’s not happening at the moment”.
He added: “I think there is a fantastic opportunity now for us to be right in the middle of politics and we don’t seem to be. We seem to be peripheral.
“We’re lacking ambition, we’re lacking courage of our convictions. We’re not saying the things that people can relate to.”
He said the party was asking people to “vote for us because we’re not somebody else”.
Brazil became the leader of Devon County Council in May last year after the Lib Dems overtook the Tories to become the largest party, but without overall control.
His comments are echoed privately by some Lib Dem MPs, as it gathers for its annual conference in Brighton.
In an essay, written ahead of the conference, South Cotswolds MP Roz Savage asked: “Why are we as a party struggling for relevance at precisely the moment when so many people feel powerless?”
She urged the party to rediscover its “insurgent spirit” rather than being the “polite custodians of a system that leaves people feeling powerless”.
Sir Ed, who was elected leader in 2020, told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he shared the “frustration” of some of his MPs that they could not bring about “real change,” blaming the UK’s political system.
But he insisted the party was gaining ground in council elections.
“It’s the most successful period that we’ve had,” he said.
“But outside elections, in terms of changing the law, which is what my MPs rightly want to do, and they’re a very talented bunch, and they’ve actually had more success than all the other smaller parties, but they want to have more.”
Speaking at a fringe meeting in Brighton, pollster Luke Tryl said the Lib Dems were not cutting through nationally and needed a more compelling message.
The executive director of More in Common said it was possible the party could take more seats in traditional Tory heartlands at the next election, potentially putting Sir Ed in a position to be deputy prime minister in a Labour-led government.
But the risk for the party, he added, was the Tories saying “if you vote Lib Dem you will get Labour”.
