Liberal Democrats want to ‘do their part’ to clean up the ‘chaos’ of the last government – ​​Daisy Cooper

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper has said her party will do its part to clean up the “mess” left by the last government, but vowed to hold Labour to account if it feels it is doing something wrong.

In an interview with the PA news agency during the party's autumn conference, Ms Cooper said the party did not want to be in opposition “for the sake of opposition”.

The Brighton conference is the party's first since the general election in July, when the party won 72 seats. Many of these seats came from the Conservatives, who had 121 MPs. Labour is currently in government with 411 MPs.

Asked about the Liberal Democrats' attacks on the Conservatives' record, Ms Cooper said: “The Conservatives have left the Labour government a huge mess to clean up and we Liberal Democrats want to do our part to clean up that mess. But we will also hold Labour to account.”

She added: “We have said we want to be a constructive opposition. That means we will support the Labour government where we think it says and does the right thing. But when it doesn't say or do the right thing, we will hold it to account and say so.”

She continued: “We want to be a constructive opposition and not just opposition for the sake of opposition.”

The 72 MPs returned to Parliament in the general election represent the highest number in the Liberal Democrats' history and put them back into the position of third largest party for the first time since 2015.

Ms Cooper said she had “no doubt whatsoever” that her parliamentary cohort would “make our presence felt”, for example through the increasing number of questions to the Prime Minister, the three select committees they now chair and the seats they will be given on committees.

She added: “We believe we will be a force to be reckoned with and we want to be a constructive opposition.”

Party leader Sir Ed Davey said on Monday that targeting Labour and the Conservatives was not a question of “either-or” for the party.

When asked about the Liberal Democrats' “main focus”, Sir Ed Davey told ITV News: “Well, it's not either/or, is it?”

“The truth is, if our new 72 Liberal Democrat MPs work hard, they can retain the trust of the voters and be re-elected. That is what they will work to achieve.”

“You can't take that for granted. That's what the Conservatives did and they lost. So we're not going to do that, we're going to work really, really hard.”

Ms Cooper spoke to PA following her speech at the conference on Monday, in which she shared a personal story about her own health condition. When she was suffering from Crohn's disease, she was once told she had “only four days” to live.

In the same interview, she said the experience had “really motivated” her to “stand up for our NHS and social care”.

The previous Monday, Sir Ed had described health and care as “critical” to the economy.

He left the conference to visit volunteers in the Sussex countryside, where he helped them replace a stile near the village of Ditchling.

He also visited Oldland Mill near Hassocks from the inside and helped to 'raise' the restored structure by manually turning the sails into the wind.

“There are simply too many people on waiting lists who want to go back to work, who want to be able to work again,” Sir Ed told PA.

“If they can't go to their GPs, if they can't get hospital treatment, they can't work. And we need these people. Employers are crying out for employees. If we get them, we can stimulate our economy.”

Asked about Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves' first budget, due on October 30, Sir Ed said: “I think the NHS and care are absolutely critical, both to saving our NHS and to getting our economy going.”