Tactical voting can push the Tories back – that’s the message I want to convey while paddleboarding and bungee jumping | Ed Davey

I I have a confession to make. I am a politician. You could be forgiven, having watched me fall off a paddleboard, go down a water slide or dive off a bungee jump over the last six weeks, for thinking I was auditioning to present a Saturday night entertainment show. In fact, I was asking you to vote Liberal Democrat.

These “set-ups” show that I don’t take myself too seriously. But what matters most to me are the issues people have brought to me and the stakes of this election, which could not be higher.

Elections like this don’t come around very often. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to end years of Tory chaos that have left families struggling with soaring mortgages, rents and childcare costs, and brought our healthcare system to its knees, while water companies are allowed to freely dump sewage into our rivers and beaches. This election is your chance to deliver your verdict on the Tory incompetence that has weakened our economy, ravaged our public services and diminished the UK’s standing in the world.

But this election is about more than just the satisfaction of seeing the Conservative Party rightly kicked out. It’s about winning the real change our country desperately needs to solve the health care crisis, get our economy back on track, and end the sewage scandal. We need to transform our politics for good, so that no party can take people for granted the way this Conservative government does.

It is tempting to look at the opinion polls and the mess of the Conservative election campaign and think that history is assured. But nothing is decided yet. There are constituencies in former Tory strongholds across the country – such as Bicester and Woodstock, Frome and East Somerset, and Mid Sussex – where seats are on the borderline between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. A handful of votes could make the difference between beating the Conservatives and keeping them in power.

This historic chance for change depends on some people voting tactically for the party best placed to beat the Conservatives in their area. In many parts of the country, including parts of the Home County and the West Country, Labour cannot and will not win. Only the Liberal Democrats can deliver change. In many constituencies – such as Didcot and Wantage, St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, and Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe – the only way to beat the Conservatives tomorrow is to vote Liberal Democrat.

I am very grateful to the many Labour supporters who have told me, as I have travelled the country over the last six weeks, that they will vote for us in this election because that is the best way to defeat the local Conservatives. I have made it clear since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats that I see my role as being to defeat as many Conservative MPs as possible. Since then, we have focused our resources on the many seats where the Liberal Democrats are second to the Conservatives. More and more people are focusing on how best to use their vote to end the Conservatives’ reign and usher in a more progressive and positive era.

But I am even more encouraged by the number of Labour supporters who support the Liberal Democrats, not just tactically but enthusiastically, because of our progressive plans for the country. Our manifesto is full of bold ideas to solve the big challenges we face, such as welfare reform. Big banks and billionaires would be asked to pay a little more tax so we can fund the NHS and healthcare properly. Our natural environment would be improved by banning water companies from dumping raw sewage into our rivers, lakes and coasts. Our politics could be transformed for good by introducing a fair voting system that gives MPs in safe seats nowhere to hide. And our broken relationship with Europe must be repaired to boost our economy and our international reputation.

Voting Liberal Democrat on many issues in this election is the best way to defeat the Conservatives, but it is much more than that. It is a vote to change the future of our country, to start building more progressive politics and a better Britain.