One person, each day, to help make sense of the election.
Months before the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey threw himself off a paddle board, he was tipped out of a kayak by Josh Babarinde – a local councillor and now the party’s candidate for Eastbourne. Not only does this clarify that these stunts are part of a long-thought out strategy, it also demonstrates where Babarinde sits in the party’s ambitions: prominently. His CV makes for compelling reading: a local businessman, former youth and gangs worker and Covid vaccinator, he received an OBE in 2020 and was elected to the council a year later. In Eastbourne, Babarinde is fighting a top-10 Lib Dem target seat, which flipped to the Conservatives in 2019, mainly on local issues like sewage dumps and resources for Eastbourne hospital. The actor Steve Coogan had a simple endorsement: “If you want to get the Tories out, you have to vote for Josh.”
