If only one thing is certain during General Election 2024 campaigning, it’s that Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is having a great time.
The 58-year-old has been pictured taking part in a variety of activities over the last two weeks, including hurling himself down a waterslide and capsizing on a paddleboard no less than five times.
Today, the possible prime minister is bouncing on a trampoline. Because why not, we guess.
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This is one of many fun days out the party leader has embarked on so far this election campaign.
He received a stunning makeover on This Morning before flaunting his new style down the runway.
Davey has played with giant jenga and paddleboarded across Lake Windermere, and enjoyed a water assault course in Warwickshire.
He admitted one of his plunges into the water was intentional, but after that, he ‘just kept falling in’.
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He’s also worn a chef’s hat baking with primary school children.
During his trip to Frome, Somerset, Sir Ed went down the slip-and-slide four times for ‘young people’s mental health’.
Speaking on the deeper reasons behind the stunt, he said: ‘We have got hundreds and thousands of children and young people waiting for treatment for their mental health and it is actually appalling.
‘If you talk to their parents, they are worried not just about their health now but what it’s going to do to their education in the future, their future life chances, their future opportunities.’
Speaking to Sky News while sharing a dinghy at the top of the slide, Sir Ed said: ‘We can win seats across the Conservatives across the West Country. Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset – all the West Country is a target for us.
‘And today we are talking both about small businesses – this is an amazing [slip ‘n slide] business in half term getting lots of business… it’s a great tourist area.
‘But we’re also talking about mental health today – the need to make sure we have mental health professionals in every primary and secondary school, and mental health is all about giving people lots of fun to do.’
‘So I think we can go,’ the Lib Dem leader said as he started to push off.
‘Are you afraid of looking a little bit silly,’ the reporter asked. Sir Ed replied: ‘No, no, this is fun, enjoy yourself.’
The Liberal Democrat leader also rode a bicycle down a steep hill in Knighton, Wales.
He was pictured looking only slightly terrified as he hurtled down the hill alongside Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, and David Chadwick, the party candidate for the area.
He told his supporters in Wales: ‘Families across Wales are working hard, they are looking after their families, loved ones, they’re playing by the rules.
‘But they’re finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet.’
Sir Ed was also spotted enjoying an ice cream on a seaside trip on his second day of the election campaign.
He made and ate the unknown flavour of ice cream as he teamed up with candidate Josh Barbarinde in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Why is Ed Davey a Sir?
Sir Ed was knighted in the 2016 New Years Honours List for ‘political and public service’.
In January pressure was growing on him to hand back his knighthood over his involvement in the Post Office scandal.
He served as postal affairs minister under the coalition government from 2010-2012.
Sir Ed admitted he should have done more to prevent the Horizon scandal after hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud.
What do we know about his wife and family?
In 2005 Sir Ed married Emily Gasson, who was the Liberal Democrat candidate for North Dorset that general election year.
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They had their first child, John, in December 2007, and live in Surbiton, London.
Emily stood for the North Dorset seat again in 2010 and obtained the number two position of the party’s London-wide candidate list for the 2016 London Assembly elections.
In 2018 she stood for election as a councillor for the three-seat Norbiton Ward in Kingston-upon-Thames and topped the poll with 20% of the vote.
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