Nigel Farage not a patriot, Ed Davey says as Lib Dem conference begins

Nigel Farage is not a patriot, Sir Ed Davey has said.

The Liberal Democrat leader launched the broadside against the head of Reform UK as he opened the first day of his party’s conference by setting out his own stall on migration and “British values”.

In a sign of how the party is attempting to take on Reform, the Lib Dems have set out proposals to close asylum hotels within six months by setting up emergency processing centres modelled on the Nightingale hospitals used during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sir Ed told Lib Dem activists that the party would campaign for “change” in tune with “British values” as he arrived in Bournemouth for their conference.

Asked by the PA news agency what he considered to be British values, the Lib Dem chief described “the vast majority of people who’ve got decent values, respect for the rule of law, tolerance, who love our country like the Liberal Democrats do”.

“They want to see a party that is true to British values but will change our country,” Sir Ed said.

These people are worried that Labour and the Tories have “failed them” he said, while Reform UK “want to take us to be more like Trump’s America”.

Asked if he thought the Reform leader was a patriot, Sir Ed pointed to Mr Farage’s recent appearance at a Washington DC congressional committee.

There Mr Farage compared the UK with North Korea, as he criticised police actions against Father Ted writer Graham Linehan for his social media posts.

Sir Ed said: “Nigel Farage bad-mouths our country, insults our country, compares us to places like North Korea.

“He’s not in touch. He makes things up. He’s not a patriot.”

Amid a public debate about nationhood and migration, when the St George’s Cross and Union flag have been raised in towns and cities across the UK, Sir Ed’s party is seeking to offer its own vision of patriotism.

A crowd of Lib Dem activists waving Union flags welcomed Sir Ed to the conference, as he led a marching band through Bournemouth Central Gardens.

He twirled a baton as he led Vectis Corps of Drums through the park, near the seafront of the south coast town.

The band, which came on the ferry from the Isle of Wight on Saturday morning, played brass renditions of pop songs including Sir Elton John’s Crocodile Rock and Tony Christie’s Is This The Way To Amarillo?

They also played Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life and the theme from the A-Team.

As they came to a halt in front of the Lib Dem crowd, Sir Ed and several of his MPs beat drums as the band played Sweet Caroline, a favourite among of England football fans.

As Sir Ed spoke with the media after the marching band stunt, a man could be seen filming him from a distance, shouting at the front line politician about migration.

“Tell him to get rid of the boats,” the man could be heard to shout at one point.

Elsewhere, a group calling themselves “Bournemouth Patriots” protested outside a hotel in the town being used to house migrants.

The group stood with national flags outside of the Roundhouse Hotel in the centre of the town, and were met by a counter-protest.

In a day focused on home affairs issues, the Lib Dems also unveiled plans to set up police desks in libraries, shopping centres, town halls and other hubs.

The initiative would “rebuild proper face-to-face policing that people can see, trust and speak to”, the party’s home affairs spokesperson Lisa Smart said.

It would be funding by scrapping police and crime commissioners (PCCs), the elected officials who oversee the budgets and priorities of the various regional forces in England and Wales.

Ms Smart also told reporters at the conference they would urge the Government to declare migration a national emergency, allowing ministers to set up Nightingale-style migrant processing centres.

New case workers could be trained “within weeks” through the scheme, she said, adding it would act as a deterrent as migrants would know they could be swiftly returned abroad.

As the first day of the Lib Dem conference drew to a close, MP Tim Farron called for the party to “reclaim our flags for those who would reunite and rebuild, not divide and destroy”.

The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale told an audience at the end-of-day rally to “stop being so flaming squeamish and English”, as he urged them to wave the miniature flags.

Mr Farron draped himself in a large St George’s Cross flag emblazoned with the words “Rovers til I Die”, a reference to his football team Blackburn Rovers, as well as “Pride of Lancashire”.