Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the party will be the “voice of carers” and “challenge the Government to make sure they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones”.

It comes after the Liberal Democrats defeated the SNP in the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat on Saturday, the final UK constituency to be declared in the General Election results.

The party achieved a record result, with 72 seats UK-wide.

Sir Ed Davey points as supporters applaud and a photographer takes pictures of him
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is greeted by supporters as he returns to the party’s HQ in central London (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Speaking at Lib Dem headquarters in central London on Friday, Sir Ed said his party’s first campaign will be “for an emergency budget for health and care”.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Ed said: “We’re going to be constructive opposition. We fought the election on health and care and the cost of living, on ending the sewage scandal and in the parliament we will focus on those issues and we will urge the Government to go further.

“We’ve already started that by calling for the emergency budget on health and care and I want to make sure they respond.

“I mean one thing I was disappointed in Labour’s manifesto was it didn’t mention family carers or unpaid carers who are actually critical.

“And I’ve made very clear that the Liberal Democrats will be the voice of carers, and we will challenge the Government to make sure they deliver for the millions of people looking after their loved ones.”

Sir Ed also said the party has “long argued for electoral reform” as “our politics is broken”, but added it “might mean that there’ll be people who are elected who we don’t agree with”.

Asked if it was fair that Reform UK got many more votes than the Lib Dems but have ended up with far fewer seats, he said: “Well, you know Laura that the Liberal Democrats have long argued for fair votes and long argued for electoral reform and proportional representation. We want to improve our democracy, our politics is broken and so we’re going to continue to make that case.

Bar chart showing the number of seats won by the Liberal Party / Liberal Democrats at general elections since 1923
(PA Graphics)

“It might mean that there’ll be people who are elected who we don’t agree with but by the way, that’s been the case in the first past the post, there are many people in the Conservative Party who seem to share the values and ideas of Reform, and they’re already there.”

Asked if the voting system was reformed under proportional representation, would he be happy to see Reform UK being the third biggest party and not the Liberal Democrats, he said: “Well, I believe in democracy, and I believe in taking forward your ideas for political reform.

“People will get voted in who you don’t agree with, under first past the post people in Reform have got elected too and people in the Conservative Party who were very close to Reform have got elected. That’s democracy, that’s allowing the people to express their will.”