I hope and pray to see Harris defeat Trump in US election, Sir Ed Davey says

Sir Ed Davey has said he hopes Kamala Harris defeats Donald Trump when Americans go to the polls in November.

The Liberal Democrat leader listed “the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency”, as well as the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East , as he called for “decency, compassion, community, respect for the rule of law”.

To finish his speech on Tuesday, marking the end of the four-day party conference in Brighton , Sir Ed told activists and delegates: “Let’s show people we are different. Let’s show them our values. Let’s show them we care. Let’s keep earning their trust.

“Let’s offer real hope. Let’s build a brighter future. And let’s keep on winning, so we can make it happen.”

With his party’s MPs behind him on stage, Sir Ed danced to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline when the speech ended.

He had earlier described people “of all races, all religions and none” who “picked up binbags and brooms and cleared up their communities” after riots throughout the UK in the summer.

Sir Ed added: “You are the true patriots in our country: decent, kind, united.

“Conference, we will never stop applauding our patriots in our country.

“Conference, these are the values our politics needs now, more than ever, to resist the rise of the extremists – not just at home but around the world too.

At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail: decency, compassion, community, respect for the rule of law

“With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine, with the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7, hostages still held captive, the continuing illegal occupations, and the threat of regional escalation, with the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency.

“How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November.

“At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail: decency, compassion, community, respect for the rule of law.”

Disorder broke out throughout England after a fatal stabbing in Southport, Merseyside.

The party leader described the deaths of three girls – Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine – as “a horrifying crime and a heartbreaking tragedy” in his speech.

Election day in the US is on Thursday November 5.