Will Post Office scandal overshadow Ed Davey’s Lib Dem election revival?

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has begun the new year with a humorous stunt – but how serious a threat is his party in the blue-wall seats of the home counties, especially now that his role in the Horizon fiasco has come back to haunt him? Sean O’Grady takes a look at the prospects

If the Lib Dems can persuade Surrey’s disillusioned Tories that the party has a realistic chance of success, then seats could go (PA)

In a typically cheesy stunt for his new year relaunch, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, eschewed issuing some fresh policy paper or making a speech nobody was going to listen to. Instead he dressed up in a hi-vis jacket, and posed next to a van as the driver and CEO of “Ed Davey’s Tory Removals”.

The photo op targeted a particular clientele – the soft Tory vote in Surrey and the home counties, where his party hopes great things will happen come the election. However, Ed’s erstwhile role as minister for postal affairs during the coalition government has caught up with him, and with it some awkward questions about the Post Office scandal...

How much trouble is Ed Davey in over the scandal?