User:Tellik07/sandbox/2023 Liberal Democrats Leadership Election

The 2023 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held in June 2023 after the resignation of Ed Davey following scrutiny under his involvement in Hikegate.

Due to the change in the constitution of the party as agreed at their spring conference three months earlier, members who were not Members of Parliament were eligible to stand. The election was won in a landslide of 84.1% by Jo Swinson, who had previously led the party in 2019.

Despite being eligible under new rules, both Nick Clegg and Vince Cable declined the prospect of running. However, Tim Farron initially declared his intention to stand, but withdrew after weak support from members.

Background
Ed Davey became the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2020, after the loss of her Westminster in 2019 seat caused incumbent leader Jo Swinson to be disqualified from remaining as leader.

Under his leadership, the Liberal Democrats were greeted with success in local and Westminster by-elections, with shock results in Chesham and Amersham, North Shropshire, and Tiverton and Honiton, as well as large gains in the 2022 local elections.

Towards the end of 2022, Davey's leadership came under question when it was discovered that he had gone on a walk in a park in his constituency of Kingston and Surbiton towards the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic, in a time when the United Kingdom was in fact under no restrictions whatsoever. Despite this, internal and external pressure eventually caused his resignation on the 7th May 2023.