Sir Ed Davey, 53, joined Louise Minchin, 51, and Dan Walker, 42, on BBC Breakfast live from Westminster following the news a General Election will be held before Christmas. With the Liberal Democrats promising to stop Brexit, Minchin grilled the deputy leader about where the part stood in terms of forming a coalition if they came on top as the majority party, with the MP seemingly contradicting himself.
Davey made it clear throughout the interview his party are hoping to stop Brexit proceedings if they are voted get a majority in the upcoming election.
However, Minchin asked him: “Isn’t the reality if you were to do that, you would have to be doing deals with other parties?”
The deputy leader replied: “We want to win by ourselves. We believe that is possible.
“There has never been a moment in British politics when the elections been so volatile. We’ve seen life long Conservative supporters come to us, life long Labour voters come to us as well.”
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As the MP continued, he explained his stance of a coalition by telling the hosts: “We believe we can win and remember, the last time this country went to the polls back last May, the Liberal Democrats beat both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.”
After expressing his confidence the Liberal Democrats will win the election, Minchin asked for clarity: “So just to be clear, are you ruling out pacts with other parties?”
“We will not do a coalition,” the deputy leader affirmed.
“Let me be clear, with Jeremy Corbyn and boris Johnson who are both unfit to be Prime Minister, the Liberal Democrats will not do a coalition with them or any sort of arrangement with them.”
We’re going in to win this election
Ed Davey
Davey continued: “We’re going in to win this election because we believe we need to stop Brexit to get our country back on track and then use the benefits of that to invest in our economies and our schools.”
Footage then played of Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, 39, admitting the party would be willing to discuss working with other parties if they secured a majority.
As Minchin asked the MP about the contradiction, Davey seemed to backtrack as he then stated his agreement with the party leader.
“I thought you were talking about discussions after the election. Now you’re talking about discussions before,” the deputy leader declared.
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“I completely agree with Jo. We’ll be discussing with Plaid and with Greens who both share our view we need to stop Brexit and they, recognising us as the strongest Remain party, want to see if there are things we can do with them.
“We want to work with others,’ Davey affirmed.
“We want to bring the country together and we have things in common with those parties particularly with Brexit issues.
“So we will look to see if we can work with them to make sure we can defeat Boris Johnson and defeat the Labour Party,” he continued.
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Still perplexed by Davey’s stance on a coalition, Minchin asked him once more to clarify the Liberal Democrats plans.
“I’m really sorry. Just to be clear with me. No pacts but you will discuss?” the host asked.
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader said: “This is before the election, we will have some discussions.
“They’re already on going and we’ll see the fruits of those shortly with Plaid and with the Green Party.”
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays at 6am on BBC One.
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