Just 60% of Lib Dem voters can identify Davey by name
It’s been five years since Ed Davey was elected leader of the Lib Dems, during which he has overseen a revival in the party’s fortunes – leading them to 72 seats at last year’s general election, the highest for the party or its predecessors in a century, while the party now holds majority control of more local councils than the Conservatives.
Despite these successes, new YouGov research shows that Ed Davey has not personally broken through to most Britons. We showed respondents photos of each of the leaders of the five major nationwide parties and asked them to name them in an open text box.
When coding the responses, we categorised a correct answer as someone who was able to provide at least their first name or surname. Misspelling was allowed as long as it was clear what name they were trying to write or had obviously been autocorrected.
Just over a third of Britons (37%) are able to correctly identify a photo of Ed Davey, alongside a further 6% who were able to note that he was a Lib Dem or leader of the party. This is little improvement from last June, during the 2024 election campaign, when 34% could correctly name Davey and a further 5% knew he was a Lib Dem.
A majority of the public (54%) are unable to provide an answer, while 2% give an incorrect answer, with ‘Ed Balls’ a common source of mistaken identity.
While Lib Dem voters themselves are better at identifying Ed Davey than Britons as a whole, still only six in ten of those who backed the party last year (60%) are able to correctly identify him, while more than a third (35%) are unsure who he was.
But Ed Davey is not the only leader with a recognition problem. Just six in ten Britons (62%) are able to identify a photo of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch by name, with 33% unable to provide any answer at all – including a party or role – when presented with an image of the leader of the opposition.
And then there’s the Greens, whose co-leaders are virtual unknowns to nearly all Britons. Just 9% of the public are able to correctly identify outgoing leader Carla Denyer, though a further 9% knew her photo was that of a senior figure in the Greens and those who gave an outright incorrect answer typically gave names of previous Green leaders such as Caroline Lucas or Siân Berry. Nonetheless, 80% of Britons cannot not give an answer.
Adrian Ramsay, who is standing in the current leadership election on a ticket with Ellie Chowns, fares even worse. Nearly all Britons (96%) are unable to give an answer when presented with his photo, with only 2% of the public able to correctly identify him.
Even among Green voters themselves, just 9% are able to name Ramsay, with 87% unsure who he is. Denyer fares better, with 36% able to put the correct name to her photo and a further 11% identifying her party or role. Nevertheless, Denyer ends her four-year tenure as Green leader with 50% of the party’s voters unable to name her.
By contrast, both prime minister Keir Starmer and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are identifiable to nearly nine in ten Britons (87-89%), consistent with their level of recognition during the election campaign last year.
Overall, only 2% of Britons are able to name all six leaders of the five current major parties, with this rising to still only 33% when removing the two Green co-leaders. This compares to 5% of the public being unable to give a correct name, role or even a party for any of the six leaders.
Do you think you could identify senior politicians from their photo? What do you think about the party leaders in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photos: House of Commons, Roger Harris, Laurie Noble and Getty
