The Liberal Democrats are the leading 'Conservative MP removal service' in the Blue Wall and beyond, said Lib Dem leader Ed Davey on a visit to key battleground seats in Guildford, Godalming & Ash and Surrey Heath on Wednesday.

To kickstart his Surrey campaign tour, Ed Davey drove a poster van advertising ‘Ed Davey’s Tory Removals’ through Guildford, before addressing Lib Dem campaigners, activists and the party’s Guildford parliamentary candidate Zöe Franklin.

He later visited Farncombe, in the new Godalming & Ash constituency where Lib Dem Paul Follows hopes to oust Chancellor and current South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt from his seat in parliament, and Surrey Heath where Lib Dem Al Pinkerton hopes to defeat another Tory cabinet member in Michael Gove.

The poster van describes the Lib Dems as the 'Blue Wall’s Premium Conservative MP unseating service', with services including repairing NHS waiting times, ending raw sewage discharges and tackling the cost of living crisis.

Sir Ed Davey has served as leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2019 and has been the MP for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017 and previously from 1997 to 2015.

He said on his visit to Surrey: "Four historic by-election wins and sweeping gains in last May’s local elections show that voters across the country are turning to us for change.

"People are fed up with waiting for promised hospitals that are never built, waiting for an end to sewage being dumped in our rivers and waiting for real action on the cost of living."

Sir Ed called for the general election to be held in May, adding "let's move the Conservatives out of government".

He said the party would table legislation next week restoring the Fixed Term Parliaments Act – introduced by the coalition government in 2011, but repealed by Boris Johnson's administration in 2022 – forcing a general election on May 2.

He told a group of cheering activists in Guildford, many carrying cardboard removal boxes, that the prime minister would block the idea "because he knows he's going to lose".

But Sir Ed added 2024 would be the year voters "finally get to pack up" the Conservative government.

The Lib Dems hope to overturn Mr Gove's 18,349 vote majority in Surrey Heath and defeat Mr Hunt in the new Godalming & Ash seat, after the Lib Dems reinforced their hold on Waverley Borough Council at the 2023 local elections.