Lib Dem leader on general election hopes in Harrogate, Tory 'failures' and the Horizon scandal

Speaking after a visit to Nidd Gorge yesterday in which Sir Ed said he was shocked by the scale of sewage problems in the Nidd, he told the newspaper the Lib Dems could win the seat at the general election.

"Harrogate is one of our top target seats and I think we can take it off the Conservatives.

"We don’t take anything for granted but a lot of Tory voters in the constituency are telling us that the party no longer speaks for them or the nation.

"When it comes to the Conservatives, I no longer see a party that is capable of governing the country.

"There is so much instability, so much division and a weak Prime Minister who has no good vision of how to fix the huge amount of problems they have created.”

The Lib Dem leader was accompanied on his visit yesterday by Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate Tom Gordon who raised how to do more to sort pollution in the river Nidd, including a new initiative to give it ‘Blue Flag’ status.

“It is shameful and shocking that our local waterways and rivers have had hours and hours of filthy sewage poured into them, and the buck stops with the Government,” said Mr Gordon.

“Time and time again they have had the chance to get tough on water companies and have failed. People deserve better.

“By giving the River Nidd Blue Flag status we’ll be guaranteeing it the protection it deserves from this sewage scandal.”

It’s now 15 years since Lib Dem Phil Willis was MP of Harrogate and Knaresborough when the town was a Lib Dem stronghold.

Since 2010 there have been four victories in a row by Tory Andrew Jones who recently wrote a stern letter to Ed Davey complaining of Lib Dems’ tactics in the seat.

But Sir Ed says he can see for himself that Tom Gordon is now making the sort of impression that the popular Mr Willis once did before standing down after 13 years as the town’s MP.

"A lot of people in Harrogate and Knaresborough who still hold Phil Willis in high regard are telling us they are going to vote Lib Dem this time,” said Sir Ed.

"They can see in Tom Gordon someone just like Phil who is leading the debate on things that really matter to people in Harrogate and Knaresborough such as the state of the NHS, the high cost of living and doing business and sewage discharges in the Nidd.

"Anything Tom campaigns on tends to be picked up by his Tory rival.”

The Lib Dem leader has faced questions in recent weeks over his brief period as the minister responsible for the Post Office in the David Cameron-Nick Clegg coalition government between 2010 and 2012.

Sir Ed, who was the first and only Post Office Minister to meet Alan Bates, the founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, said he fully supported the current inquiry into the Horizon scandal which hit more than 900 postmasters and, also, the police interest in the Post Office’s behaviour.

"I’m pleased the police are investigating,” said Sir Ed.

"I wouldn’t blame any minister for this appalling situation because all the evidence shows the Post Office lied on an industrial scale over and over again.

"They lied to staff, they lied to ministers and they lied to the courts.

"This has been a huge miscarriage of justice.”