Davey aims for Lib Dem northern breakthrough
LDRSThe Liberal Democrats can make a "real breakthrough" in the local elections next month, party leader Ed Davey has said.
He made the comments during a visit to Newcastle, where the party governed from 2004 to 2011.
Davey told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he believed the local election fight was "increasingly between us and Reform" and said increasing his party's presence across the North was "hugely important".
The Lib Dems - who are currently the main opposition in Newcastle and in Gateshead - ran Durham County Council in coalition with the Conservatives and Independents before Reform took the authority in a landslide victory last year.
The Lib Dems lead 74 councils across England and Wales, but only a handful of those are in the north of England.
LDRSSpeaking after planting flowers in a memorial garden dedicated to the victims of the Heaton Main Colliery disaster of 1815, Davey said: "Before the last election, the name of the game was getting rid of the Conservatives and it was quite difficult to take on Labour in the North East in that situation.
"However, Labour has done so badly and let people down.
"Now there is a very different political fight to what it was in the general election, and that is why I think we can make a real breakthrough – building on years of solid community work in the North East."
A spokesperson for Labour said they believed only a vote for them could stop Reform in the North East and the elections were "a chance to vote for continued investment in the future of our families and our communities with Labour".
Pledging, among other things, to reduce the cap on bus fares to £1, Davey also took aim at Reform's record in power in County Durham, calling it "shocking".
A spokesperson for Reform said: "Ed Davey's outrage would carry far more weight if his own Liberal Democrat councils weren't charging working-age benefit claimants more than Durham under similar schemes while hiking council tax by the highest level of any political party."
Reform has limited this year's council tax rise to 1.99% in Durham, which is lower than most areas, but has faced criticism for removing the total exemption from paying council tax for the county's poorest households.
The BBC has contacted the Conservatives and Green Party for comment.
Full elections are taking place in Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle and South Tyneside on 7 May.
There will also be votes in a third of the seats on both Hartlepool and North Tyneside councils.