‘This is bigger than potholes’: Lib Dems tap into voter anger over sewage

Party is striking chord with ‘blue wall’ voters by championing a classic environmental issue

Posing for the cameras with a photogenic dog is something of an election campaign cliche, but as Ed Davey picks up Marvin, an affectionately squirming Norfolk terrier, the intended message is about something much less obviously appealing – sewage.

The Liberal Democrat leader is posing with a series of dogs and their owners on Eastbourne beach, a local election stop intended to bring attention to an issue his party has campaigned on enthusiastically for the last two years, and with increasing cut-through.