4. Winning Here: The Liberal Democrats

For the Liberal Democrats, the 2019 election had been both a ‘disaster waiting to happen’ and a ‘massive disappointment’. A disaster waiting to happen because a summer polling surge went to the heads of party strategists and activists, leading them to spread themselves too thin, and a massive disappointment as, despite a big increase in overall vote, the party ended up with just 11 seats, fewer than it had won in 2017. Yet beneath the surface of that bruising setback was a transformed electoral map, one which offered the party a historic opportunity to profit from any decline in Conservative fortunes, as the party had finished second to the Tories in 80 seats. According to the chair of the party’s official review, Baroness Dorothy Thornhill, ‘if electoral good fortune is about preparation meeting with opportunity, then the Liberal Democrats’ story in 2019 is one of real opportunity, but for which we were fundamentally unprepared’. Everything the Lib Dems did thereafter was geared to ensuring that, by the time the next election rolled around, opportunity would indeed be met with preparation.