Lib Dems Hope Ed Davey's Role In Post Office Scandal Won't Cost Them Votes

Liberal Democrats remain hopeful that Conservative attacks on leader Ed Davey about his role in the Horizon Post Office scandal won't do too much damage to their electoral prospects, and believe such criticisms from Tories in swing seats could be attempts to fight off Liberal Democrat opposition.

Davey has come under scrutiny over his role in the scandal, given his position as postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012, a fact his detractors have been all too keen to highlight. According to the Sunday Times, in spring 2010, Davey told Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster and Horizon victim who led the campaign for justice, that a meeting between the two would not serve “any useful purpose”. Later that autumn, after further correspondence, a meeting went ahead. Davey has now faced calls to resign as party leader, or to hand back his knighthood over the affair.

Deputy Conservative party chairman Lee Anderson used a Prime Minister’s Question on Wednesday to tell the Lib Dem leader to “clear his desk, clear his diary, and clear off”. 

While Lib Dem figures feel the attacks on Davey, who claims he was lied to by the Post Office over the issue, are not justified, there is a frustration among some that the party was not better prepared for the inevitable backlash, and they have been left feeling caught out by the issue. 

“There is a growing feeling in the party that the Conservatives are attacking Ed because they see this as being electorally helpful to them – CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] know that Liberal Democrats are a big threat to them in some of their former heartlands," a Liberal Democrat source told PoliticsHome.

“The Conservative Party is not above politicising the most profound miscarriage of justice of