Charlie Maynard resigns from Lib Dem frontbench over Ed Davey

• Charlie Maynard left his role as Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson on Friday, 9 October.¹
• The Financial Times described the move as an attempt to topple Ed Davey; deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the “vast majority” of MPs supported him.²
• The party’s constitution says a no-confidence vote must pass with support from a majority of its Commons MPs to trigger a leadership election.³

Maynard’s resignation puts a public challenge to Davey’s leadership inside the Liberal Democrats. Politics.co.uk reported that the Witney MP had left the frontbench, citing the Financial Times as the first to report the departure. The Financial Times headline described it as an attempt to topple Davey.¹²

Cooper responded by saying that most Liberal Democrat MPs backed Davey and wanted him to lead the party into the next general election. That was her account of MPs’ views, not a published tally.¹

Resigning from the frontbench is not the same as triggering a leadership election. Under the party constitution, MPs must pass a no-confidence vote by a majority of the Commons parliamentary party; a separate route requires a requisition from at least 75 local parties. Politics.co.uk reported no vote or count of supporters, and did not establish that Maynard intended to stand as a candidate.³⁴

The departure follows public disagreements among Liberal Democrat MPs over Davey’s response to Andy Burnham’s proposal to change the state-pension triple lock. Politics.co.uk also reported that Alison Bennett had left her frontbench role as care and carers spokesperson the previous week, without giving a public explanation.¹

Footnotes

1. Politics.co.uk, “Lib Dem MP quits frontbench in protest at Ed Davey’s leadership” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Financial Times, “Lib Dem MP launches attempt to topple leader Ed Davey” ↩ ↩²

3. Liberal Democrats, Federal Constitution, Article 18 ↩ ↩²

4. Liberal Democrats, Federal Election Regulations ↩