Lib Dem leader Ed Davey denies housebuilding u-turn

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey says his party has not changed tack on housebuilding targets in order to win votes from Conservative supporters.

The party is considering dropping a commitment to build 380,000 new homes a year, in favour of targeting 150,000 new council or social homes.

He denied the party opposes new housing in Tory-run areas where they are trying to win parliamentary and council seats.

He said they opposed "developer-led" schemes without proper amenities.

Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, presented by Victoria Derbyshire, Sir Ed said his party backed a "community-led approach" where local people were involved in the whole decision-making process around new housing.

"You need to take communities with you," he said, to stop the wrong houses being built in the wrong places.

"So often, you hear people are objecting not to houses but objecting to the fact there are not enough houses, not enough GPs, not enough schools," he said.

The Liberal Democrats will be debating their housebuilding policies at their conference in Bournemouth on Monday.

Sir Ed brushed aside suggestions that voters had no idea what his party stood for, saying the Lib Dems were winning by-elections and council elections in Conservative heartlands where people had heard their message.

He declined to rule out the UK rejoining the European Union at some point in the future, but again insisted this was "not currently on the table".

His priority was to rebuild relations and trust with other European leaders, and to put Britain back "at the heart of Europe", he added.

Asked whether he would ever go into coalition with the Tories again, he said: "There is no way we could deal with the Conservatives, they've ruined our country."

But Sir Ed refused to be drawn on whether he might consider a coalition with Labour after the next general election, saying he had learned from his predecessors as leader that talking about coalitions distracted voters from Lib Dem ideas.