Eight Months on the Liberal Democrats are About to Elect Their New Leader

THE election for the fifth Liberal Democrats leader in five years seems to have been going on interminably since former leader Jo Swinson unexpectedly lost her seat in last year’s General Election.

Finally, the polls have closed, just eight months later with votes being cast for the last two standing, interim leader Sir Ed Davey and relative newcomer Layla Moran.

There is a lot of work to be done to try to recover the Lib Dems political credibility whichcontinued its downwards trend in the December 2019 election, returning just 11 MPs despite becoming self-proclaimed champion of Bremainers.

Sir Ed Davey appears to be the favourite having been in Parliament for two decades and having been a Minister in the Coalition Government, but to some extent he may be stained by his relationship with Nick Clegg and the Conservatives.

Former Maths teacher Layla Moran was something of a surprise victor in 2017 and retained her seat last year so promotes herself as ‘a new broom’ who would be prepared to side with Labour to oust the current Conservative Government.

The results of the election will be announced tomorrow August 27 at 11.30am UK time.