Sir Ed Davey says response to election video about his disabled son pushed him to focus Lib Dems on care

“I don't really talk about my children,” he admitted.

“I don't talk about my daughter at all, so we’ve had to work out where to draw a line about talking about John.”

The Lib Dem leader shared an emotional election video, showing his caring responsibilities for his 15-year-old son, as well as previously for his mother Nina, who died of cancer when Sir Ed was 15.

He said he was “apprehensive” about opening up about John, who has severe learning and physical disabilities and needs round the clock care, as he wants to “protect him totally”.

But Sir Ed said the response to the video was “phenomenal” and pushed him even further to focus on care in the election campaign.

“The more we talked about it, the more people said thank you so the more we talked about it,” he said.

“And it convinced us more than any focus group or poll that we needed to be the ones talking about it, as no one else was.”

During the election, the Liberal Democrats put forward a “mini manifesto” on care, which pledged to establish an independent living taskforce to help people live independently in their own homes, a new care worker’s minimum wage to raise their pay by £2 an hour, and a new National Care Agency to set minimum standards of care across the country.

Sir Ed said his own experiences “gives me insight, every day with my son, about what caring actually means”.

“There's lots of love and affection,” he said.

“I’m really close to my son, I was really close to my mum.

“That's special, but it doesn't take away the fact that it’s tough and we are able to get some help, many people aren't.”

With a focus on the NHS and social care, Sir Ed, 58, led the Liberal Democrats to their best election result for more than 100 years, winning 72 seats and becoming the third party once again.

It was remarkable turnaround from the man who lost his seat in 2015 following the tuition fees U-turn.

“We did lose trust, it’s a fact,” he recalls.

“When I became leader after three election defeats, I said we’ve got to do things differently.

“We saw the by-election victories, we saw the local election victories and now we’ve seen the general election victory - so we’ve clearly regained some trust.

“You still have to keep doing that, that’s going to be my point at the conference speech and to the party.”

The Lib Dems won a seat in Yorkshire for the first time since 2019, with Tom Gordon the new MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Sir Ed believes this will help “project the Liberal Democrat voice across the county”.

He also thinks his party can become the main opposition in Parliament, with the Tories going through a months-long leadership election.

“I think we can be a lot better opposition than the Conservatives for lots of reasons,” he explained.

“They're clearly divided, they're clearly not facing up to the scale of their defeat and why they were defeated.

“We’re going to go on about the health service and care - the Conservatives don’t have any credibility on those issues.

“We’re going to be the opposition to the government on those issues.”