• Ed Davey unveils new Lib Dem frontbench team to champion “the people’s priorities”
• Cole-Hamilton: For ten years the SNP have picked at the scab of their defeat

Ed Davey unveils new Lib Dem frontbench team to champion “the people’s priorities”

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has announced his new frontbench, as he calls on his party to champion the “people’s priorities” and “clean up the mess left by the Conservative government.”

The new frontbench announcement follows Ed Davey’s conference speech, where he set out the Liberal Democrat plan to be a “constructive opposition” holding the new government to account. Davey unveils his new team of spokespeople after the party won 72 seats at the general election, becoming the largest third party in the House of Commons in a hundred years.

Daisy Cooper remains as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, but will also now become the party’s Treasury Spokesperson, where she will focus on the cost-of-living crisis and holding the Government to account as it clears up the terrible economic mess left by the Conservative Party.

Helen Morgan, who became MP for North Shropshire in a historic by-election victory in 2021, now leads on Health and Social Care, the number one priority for the party that is championing access to GPs and dentists as well as support for unpaid carers.

The Liberal Democrats will have a renewed focus on Scotland and Wales ahead of general elections there in 2026, with senior parliamentarian Christine Jardine as the party’s Scotland Spokesperson, leading on taking the fight to the SNP from Westminster. Newly elected MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe David Chadwick will be Wales Spokesperson.

A wave of new Liberal Democrat MPs have been appointed to the frontbench, including Lisa Smart as Home Affairs Spokesperson and Calum Miller as Foreign Affairs Spokesperson.

The Liberal Democrats have also increased their influence in parliament with Layla Moran, Alistair Carmichael and Jamie Stone becoming Select Committee Chairs and therefore stepping back from their former spokesperson roles.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey said:

My new frontbench will champion the people’s priorities, ensuring we hold the new government to account as a responsible opposition.

I am humbled by the result of the General Election and the millions of voters who put their trust in the Liberal Democrats, including many for the first time. We will stand up for our communities every day on the issues that matter most, fixing health and care services, tackling the cost of living crisis and protecting our precious environment.

I am so proud of my entire team of 72 Liberal Democrat MPs who will serve as strong local champions in Westminster as we clean up the mess left by the Conservative government.

Cole-Hamilton: For ten years the SNP have picked at the scab of their defeat

Speaking in the SNP government’s debate in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

There are so many topics crying out for this parliament’s attention and for parliamentary time.

For things like the crisis in accessing primary care and GP appointments at the first time of asking. The lack of dentists providing NHS care in our constituencies. The sewage flowing into our rivers from the government-owned water company. The mental health crisis which sees young people, suspected ADHD, waiting on a waiting list for seven years. The missed climate targets, the drug deaths emergency, the 170,000 Scots currently battling Long Covid.

This is how Liberal Democrats would choose to influence government time.

But the SNP have spent the last ten years picking at the scab of their defeat; it colours everything we do in this place.

We’ll hear a lot about Brexit. But the SNP were latent converts to that cause, to the cause of European unity. And in fact, the SNP spent more losing the Shetland by-election to the Liberal Democrats than they did on the entirety of the Remain campaign in 2019.

Lib Dems believe in togetherness, in internationalism, in Scotland’s place in a reformed and federal United Kingdom.

I am glad that ten years ago we voted to remain in this family of nations. Let this time, this afternoon we indulge this failing government in its obsession and in its fanaticism be the very last one we do in this chamber.