Health and safety rules thwarted a planned Liberal Democrat election stunt that would have seen Sir Ed Davey “put his hand up a cow’s backside”, the party leader admitted on Tuesday.
The Lib Dems won a record 72 MPs at the general election with a carefully curated election battle plan that included a number of eye-catching media stunts.
But in his keynote speech at the party’s conference, Sir Ed admitted there were some ideas that were rejected.
“Now I’m not supposed to tell you what stunt ideas were rejected – not least because they’re still trying to persuade me to do them at the next election,” he told delegates in Brighton.
“But I’ll let you into a little secret. It was only health and safety rules that stopped me putting my hand up a cow’s behind or wing walking on a biplane.
Sir Ed added that the stunts were a way to draw attention to key issues, such as the crisis in the NHS and sewage scandal.
He said: “However we were campaigning – and wherever we were campaigning – we always had our clear Liberal Democrat message that showed we’d listened and we’d understood people’s concerns.”
The Lib Dems won 60 seats from the Conservatives with their targeted campaign.
Sir Ed came on stage to close the conference backed by the party’s 72 MPs and dancing to ABBA’s Take a Chance On Me.
He vowed to “consign the Conservatives to the history books” by acting as a better opposition.
The NHS would be the focus of their campaigning, he said.
“Practically every year I can remember, governments have ended up announcing hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis,” he said.
“To paper over the cracks.
“What if – instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, instead of throwing more and more money at just plugging the gaps – we invested now, to make the NHS winterproof?
“The Government could and should make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS.
“So I urge Labour: do not make the same mistakes the Conservative Party did. Be more positive. Act now. Show the ambition and urgency this moment demands – and save our NHS now.”
