Cody Butler strides through the Brighton Centre carrying a Liberal Britain tote bag, appearing perfectly at ease amid the Liberal Democrats’ annual gathering.
Yet when asked how he is settling in, the 21-year-old replied: “Odd.” Butler, a former Conservative Party activist, resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network and left the Tories in July, arguing that centrists, Remainers, and members alarmed by the climate crisis were no longer welcome in the party. A week ago, he joined the Liberal Democrats.
“There is no easy way to describe joining a new political party, because it’s like finding a new family,” he said. “I was brought up in a Conservative association. I was the local Tory boy. So it’s great, but odd.”
Butler is among several young former Conservatives who have publicly switched allegiance to Britain’s third party and are working to establish a new faction: the One Nation Liberals. The group is growing, with other potential defectors reportedly waiting to see whether they can remain politically active under Kemi Badenoch’s increasingly rightward-shifting party.
Butler has been joined by Josh Bancroft, a former Tory councillor on Cannock Chase council, who crossed to the Lib Dems earlier this month. “Moderates like me have been forced out of the big tent over the past few years,” he said. “My politics haven’t changed, but the party has.”
The 26-year-old said the number of moderates seeking an exit has grown since Badenoch embarked on a purge of the Conservative parliamentary party.
In July, the Tory leader warned that anyone supporting net zero targets or Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights would be barred from standing as a candidate in the next election. Former minister Gavin Barwell lost the whip, and another former cabinet member, Grant Shapps, was blocked from standing again for the party.
“The Conservatives have shifted sharply to the right, leaving me and millions of voters behind,” Bancroft added. “The Liberal Democrats can be and should be their new political home.”
Bancroft and Butler have been warmly received into the Liberal ranks, with one MP joking that Badenoch had become the Lib Dems’ most effective recruiter. During a Q&A on the first full day of the conference, party leader Ed Davey repeatedly invoked Badenoch, referencing her decision to freeze out members and MPs who support net zero policies.
“Unlike Kemi Badenoch, who appears unbothered by this summer’s heatwaves, we recognise the need to take action on climate change and we are leading that debate,” he said.
Despite sitting at around 11% in national polling, many Liberal Democrat activists and MPs in Brighton spoke with conspicuous confidence about cementing the foundations of the so-called orange wall. They pointed to the 72 seats they won in the last election, making them the largest third party in British politics for over a century. Of the 27 seats where the Lib Dems finished second in 2024, 20 were taken by the Conservatives.
When asked whether reaching 100 seats by capturing those targets was the goal, Davey insisted there was “no ceiling” to the Liberal Democrats’ ambitions. “If we have great local councillors, great local candidates and great local campaigners, we can beat Reform, the Tories, Labour, Green, the SNP, anyone. We can win anywhere where there’s a multi-party fight.”
On Sunday, Davey explicitly ruled out any future pact with the Conservatives. But when asked about a potential arrangement with Labour, he said maximising the number of Lib Dem MPs would give his party a stronger hand in any future negotiations. “That means you have to box really smartly,” he said.
While that prospect may send some hardline Tories running for the hills, it could attract others into the Liberal Democrat ranks, argued Butler.
“It used to be that if you wanted power you could only join the Conservatives or Labour, but that reality doesn’t exist anymore in a five-party system,” he said. “My message to other One Nation Conservatives is: you can be true to what you believe, and if you back the Liberal Democrats, you’re actually backing the future kingmakers of government. They will write the budget. The Conservatives won’t.”
