Our most popular leader? It isn't who you think it is...

As parts of the country prepare to vote in the first ballot since the general election today, Andrew Grice says one person has single-handedly turned it into a five-horse race

- Andrew Grice

Quiz question: who is the UK’s most popular party leader? Is it Nigel Farage? No – a lot of people don’t like him. Keir Starmer, after his recent good run on foreign affairs? No. Kemi Badenoch? Come off it.

The answer is Ed Davey.

In the most recent opinion polls, the Liberal Democrat leader’s personal ratings outscore those of his Labour, Reform UK and Conservative counterparts. Not that you would know it from most of the press releases pumped out by polling companies or the way their surveys are reported by the media.

Similarly, it’s a safe bet the Lib Dems will make gains at today’s council elections in England and that they will remain largely below the public’s radar. Gains for Farage, heavy Tory losses and possibly a bad night for Labour will make more sexy headlines.

The Lib Dems, who became the largest third party in parliament for 100 years last year when they won 72 seats, quietly hope to make further inroads into the traditionally Tory blue wall and to end up controlling more councils than the Tories. Some polls put the Lib Dems in first place in the south outside London.

Badenoch is making Davey’s task easier. The Tories are so spooked by Farage that they rarely appeal to the blue wall, even though any route back from the wilderness would surely run through the 60 seats they lost to the Lib Dems last year.