Rebecca Pow: We cannot forget about the Lib Dems and let them dominate blue wall voter’s issues

Rebecca Pow is a former DEFRA Minister the former MP for Taunton Deane.

The May local elections are finally out of the way.

We all knew this would be a difficult set of elections. When we last contested these councils, we were riding high in the polls under Boris Johnson. But the defeat of many hard-working Conservative councillors is a huge loss for the party, and they deserve huge respect and thanks for continuing to fight for our Party every day for the last few months.

But the political weather has shifted, and we are on a long road to rebuilding the Conservative Party, rediscovering what we stand for, repairing our relationship with voters and being honest about the mistakes we made.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from this loss. And although Reform’s success will doubtlessly dominate the headlines, we cannot sleep on the threat from the Lib Dems. With the surge from Reform, it is easy to overlook the fact the Liberal Democrats are on the verge of becoming the second biggest party when it comes to county and town halls, whilst boasting 72 seats in Parliament. They are slowly chipping away at our once great blue wall and, given the delicate future of the Conservative Party, we cannot afford such tunnel vision.

We know, above all else, Reform voters – and indeed many Tory and Lib Dem voters – care about immigration. But rather than tack right on migration, the Liberal Democrats have taken another route, focusing on local issues. In particular, they have doubled down on the environment, focusing on everything from supporting farmers to cleaning rivers. This is a wise electoral strategy on their part: 65 per cent of Tory switchers to the Lib Dems at the last general election want to see the government tackling climate change, according to CT Group polling.

This is ground on which Conservatives should feel more than comfortable taking the fight to Lib Dems.

We often forget our record in government on the environment was extremely strong. We brought in the game-changing Environment Act, which made it easier to tackle air pollution, halt the decline of nature, and create a sustainable future. We were the party that brought in the Environmental Land Management schemes, which are empowering farmers to restore nature, tackle flooding and protect rivers, while producing high-quality food.

We banned the EU from fishing sand eels from British waters to help puffins, kittiwakes, and other endangered seabird species recover. We made it simpler to recycle and introduced the water restoration fund, using fines from negligent water companies to clean up our rivers.

We brought in new measures to protect hedgerows. We also phased out polluting coal power and added £83 billion to the UK’s economy through innovative clean technology. And that is just to name a few.

We delivered, and that is what we do better than the Lib Dems. They have always been all talk and unrealistic targets, whereas for Conservatives, environmental action is practical and pragmatic.

Lib Dems are also a single issue party when it comes to the environment. Tackling sewage pollution is vital, but there are many more environmental issues requiring attention, from peatland restoration to marine protection. Despite all our successes, we seemed to shy away from talking about our conservative intuition to protect our green and pleasant land and make local communities cleaner and more pleasant to live in. And that is where the Liberal Democrats have capitalised.

As the local elections show, the Liberal Democrats are not going away. They are making further inroads into what should be heartland Conservative areas. That is where we should lean on our environmental record and demonstrate the conservative belief to preserve the world around us that has been championed from Edmund Burke to Margaret Thatcher, right up to Boris Johnson.

When we embrace our ideological heritage in environmental conservation and stewardship and remind voters we are the only Party that can actually deliver for them, we can neutralise one of the Liberal Democrats’ greatest assets.

We saw this no more clearly than in 2015. We knew we had to take on the Liberal Democrats if we wanted a majority. We were ruthless and we doubled down on David Cameron’s ‘vote blue, go green’ message. And it worked.

This strategy neutralised one of the very few arguments the Lib Dems feel strong on. And they fell across the country, in no small part because of it.

The Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch has taken some positive steps in championing the environment. It has rightly stood up for farmers who’ve had their sustainable farming funding cut and called out the government for cutting the Water Restoration Fund.

It is only right that the Party takes its time to work out what policies it wants to champion at Westminster, especially as the general election is another four years away. But if we want to return to core conservative values, provide a strong answer to the Liberal Democrat threat, and develop a winning strategy, then we should look no further than the environment. And we should aim to have some signature conservative environmental policies to champion at the next set of local elections in 2026, where the Lib Dems will again seek to make gains at our expense across our English heartlands.

We need an agenda that builds a more sustainable Britain that also fosters economic growth – the two are not mutually exclusive.

Britain’s beautiful countryside, unique native species, rolling hills, ancient woodlands, and long and winding rivers hold a special place in our hearts and our national story. Let the Conservative Party be the Party for conservation, and we will restore the blue wall.