Who is Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey?

Sir Ed went into politics at a young age and, apart from a five year stint as a consultant, has been there ever since.

Six months after graduating he went to work for Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown as an economic adviser.

In 1997 he contested and won the Greater London constituency of Kingston and Surbiton.

When the Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Conservatives in 2010 he was made a junior business minister.

He has recently faced questions over why he didn’t do more to help post office sub-masters wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.

He rose further in 2012, when he was promoted to the cabinet position of energy and climate change secretary. But he lost his seat in 2015, when his party took an electoral pummelling.

He regained his old seat in 2017 – and three years later became party leader.

Sir Ed has focused on topics he believes will appeal to his party’s target voters including the NHS and sewage in rivers.

He has also enthusiastically embraced his party’s penchant for attention-grabbing stunts – most recently happily taking to, and falling off, a paddle board in Windermere.