Lib Dems criticise Swansea MP for calling their leader a ‘fat bloke in a wetsuit’

Martin Shipton

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have criticised UK Labour Treasury Minister and Swansea West MP Torsten Bell after he described Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey as a “fat bloke in a wetsuit” at a Labour event.

At a time when Swansea and Wales face pressing challenges from the cost of living crisis to NHS waiting times and housing shortages, the Welsh Lib Dems said that residents deserve seriousness and respect from their elected representatives, not playground insults.

The Lib Dems highlighted that Mr Bell was parachuted into Swansea West last year by Labour’s central machine, despite having little connection to the community.

Swansea issues

Since his election, concerns have grown that he has been more focused on building his Westminster profile than on working with local groups and tackling Swansea’s issues.

They have also criticised his hypocritical stance on welfare and social justice.

At the Resolution Foundation think tank, where he was chief executive before becoming an MP, Mr Bell loudly condemned the two-child benefit cap as “immoral” and urged its abolition. Yet in Westminster he has fallen into line, voting to keep the cap and defending benefit cuts from the front bench.

Cllr Sam Bennett, a Welsh Lib Dem Councillor in Swansea and Senedd Candidate for Gŵyr Abertawe, said: “Swansea expects more from someone in national office. Swansea West deserves an MP who works with the community and shows respect, not one who hides behind childish jibes.

Apologise

“Mr Bell should apologise and focus on serving the people who sent him to Westminster, not scoring headlines and climbing the greasy poll of Whitehall.

“Meanwhile the Lib Dems will keep holding Labour to account on policies like the two child benefit cap, Winter fuel allowance and river pollution and we will do it without descending into childish insults.”

Some have criticised Sir Ed for his eye-catching stunts while on the campaign trail.

During the run-up to the 2024 general election, these included taking part in a Bungee jump; falling off a paddleboard a number of times on Lake Windermere; hurtling down a hill on a bicycle in Knighton, Powys; going down the Ultimate Slip’n’Slide attraction in Somerset; making cake mix while visiting a school in Hertfordshire; washing an ambulance during a visit to Wimbledon; knocking down blue playbricks, signifying the fall of the Tory party’s Blue Wall in Stockport; riding on a rollercoaster in an amusement park in Surrey; plunging into an “AquaJungle” in Stratford-upon-Avon to highlight the sewage crisis; undertaking an assault course at an outdoor centre in Kent; making sandcastles on a beach in Devon; racing wheelbarrows in Somerset; throwing a Frisbee in Hampshire; trying his hand at archery in Cambridgeshire and hula-hooping with his party’s Scottish leader in Edinburgh.