Ed Davey has sparked outrage by claiming that a Nigel Farage government would lead to an increase in school shootings. The crass and unfounded claim will be delivered in his LibDem conference leader’s speech, set to be delivered later today.
Sir Ed is expected to accuse Mr Farage of wanting to turn Britain into a “Trump-inspired country”, claiming Britain will go the way of America on issues from healthcare to climate change. The LibDem leader will say: “Imagine living in the Trump-inspired country Farage wants us to become. Where there’s no NHS, so patients are hit with crippling insurance bills. Or denied healthcare altogether. “Where we pay Putin for expensive fossil fuels and destroy our beautiful countryside with fracking – while climate change rages on. Where gun laws are rolled back, so schools have to teach our children what to do in case of a mass shooting. Where social media barons are free to poison young minds with impunity.”
“Where the government tramples on our basic rights and freedoms, unconstrained by the European Convention on Human Rights. 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. That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain.”
A Reform UK official hit back: “Ed Davey is a sad little man desperate for attention.”
Mr Farage quipped: “Just watching poor Ed Davey speak. He is obsessed with me. I am happy to pay for a psychiatrist.”
The Lib Dems’ Bournemouth conference has been dominated by Nigel Farage and Reform UK, as the party appears terrified of the insurgent party’s surge in the polls.
Sir Ed led a flag-waving session at the conference, insisting that the LibDems are just as patriotic as Reform and calling on the centre ground to take back ownership of patriotism.
His speech contained 25 name checks of Mr Farage, who is currently polling more than double the Liberal Democrats.
In 2014 Mr Farage said that Blair’s crackdown on hand guns had gone too far and left criminals the only people with guns in Britain.
Nigel Farage said: “I think proper gun licensing is something we’ve done in this country responsibly and well for a long time, and I think the kneejerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practise was just crackers.
“If you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns. It’s really interesting that since Blair brought that piece of law in, gun crime doubled in the next five years in this country.”
“I think that we need a proper gun licensing system, which to a large extent I think we already have, and I think the ban on handguns is ludicrous.”
A Reform source now says: “Reform has no intention of changing the gun laws.”
