Author Archives: Josh Babarinde

Josh Babarinde

Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

By Josh Babarinde | Tue 9th June 2026 - 8:16 pm

The May local elections have shown us we’re at a critical point for this party, and we need to decide where to go next.

There were some great results to celebrate. We gained three councils, 153 councillors, and hit double figures in Scotland. We knocked on over three million doors, and had more than a million conversations on the doorstep. Our canvassing was up 25% on four years ago. Our polling day activity was so strong, it was nearly at General Election levels! Our members, activists, councillors, staff and parliamentarians pulled out all the stops. It was an incredible effort and I am so so proud to be a part of it.

But I know that only tells part of the story. We didn’t make enough gains across key parts of the country, particularly in the North, the Midlands and urban areas. As someone who once stood for Parliament in Tower Hamlets, I mean it when I say that liberalism should be a key offer to our inner cities. 

Ever since I became Party President, I have been clear that I want us to go further than places we are comfortable. It is time to be ambitious. We cannot afford to abandon parts of the country because they may be difficult for us to reach. Politics is crying out for a serious, positive, liberal message, and we leave no stone unturned. 

There were brilliant candidates who gave everything to campaigns and didn’t get what they deserved. I campaigned (to name a few) in Cardiff, Hull, Southwark, Birmingham, Sheffield and Cambridge. Watching some of them lose to Reform or Green candidates who put in a fraction of the effort we did was utterly gutting. 

With all that said, with populism and nationalism on the rise, and with a crowded multi-party system intensifying, we need a new party strategy to meet this new moment. 

A party strategy built by members

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Josh Babarinde

100 things @ 100 days

By Josh Babarinde | Thu 16th April 2026 - 9:31 am

Hello lovely Liberal Democrats!

This week, we reached 100 days since I took office as Party President – and what an honour it’s been so far!

I’ve been working with incredible members, activists, councillors, parliamentarians and staff across our party to help us to reach more people – voters, donors, volunteers, media and more – with our liberal message and to reinforce our position as the last line of defence against populism and division in our country.

Below are 100 things that I’ve been doing since I was elected to play my part in that fight as Party president. It’s not an exhaustive list but I hope it gives a flavour of what I’ve been up to!

(PS It’s in a random order, so please don’t read too much into that!)

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Josh Babarinde

Josh Babarinde writes…. Trump can go f**k himself

By Josh Babarinde | Fri 23rd January 2026 - 11:07 pm

There are moments that demand we speak plainly. 

The moment that Trump demeaned and mocked the sacrifices of our troops is one of them. 

It is time we recognise this moment for what it is, and move together as a party and as a country to meet it.

Donald Trump has accused NATO forces in Afghanistan of having “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” It is time for an uncomfortable truth. This man is no friend of Britain, and we must stop pretending that he is.

Our armed forces personnel stand ready, if necessary, to lay down their lives for our security. There is no higher calling. And those who answer that call, those who brace themselves to face dangers most of us will never know, deserve our eternal gratitude and a clear promise: that we will never forget, and we will never allow their service to be disrespected.

Afghanistan was the only time in NATO’s history that Article 5 was invoked. And it was invoked for America, after the attacks of September 11th.

We answered the call. We sent our troops because when your ally is attacked, you stand with them. That’s what the alliance – and the special relationship – has meant to us. That’s what we believed America meant. It is that type of internationalism that our party has always defended, and what makes me so proud to be a Liberal Democrat. 

But we must be clear about who in Britain still lacks the courage to stand up. Nigel Farage could only muster that Trump’s comments were “not quite fair.” Not quite fair. 

As if hundreds of British deaths were a matter of fairness, as if this were anything less than disrespect of their memory. That cowardice tells us everything we need to know about the choice before our country. 

Populists have tried to claim ownership of patriotism and we must take it back.

Real patriotism isn’t wrapping yourself in a flag while tearing down your neighbours. It isn’t exploiting people’s fears or looking to divide communities.

Real patriotism is what our armed forces showed when they deployed to Afghanistan and elsewhere. It’s what their families showed when they said goodbye at RAF Brize Norton, not knowing if they would ever see them again.

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Josh Babarinde

Vote for a megaphone president to challenge populism

By Josh Babarinde | Fri 31st October 2025 - 12:03 pm

Editor’s Note: In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign.

Friends, this week ballot papers have been sent out and are landing on (digital) doormats. Our members will choose our next Party President, and members of the federal committees.

Since launching my campaign to be our next Party President I’ve been clear that ensuring the Liberal Democrats are the first and last line of defence against the rising tides of populism and nationalism must be the top priority for the next President.

At this point in our country’s history, and at this point in our party’s story, we need a campaigning President committed to taking on this external threat. 

Regrettably, in recent weeks especially, we’ve seen exactly why this matters so much. 

When Reform MP Sarah Pochin exclaimed that she is ‘driven mad’ by the sight of Black and Asian people in TV adverts, I spoke out, publicly condemning her textbook racism and making clear that racist comments have no place in our society.

Our movement must always lead with courage, compassion and conviction. We must show that liberalism is not just something we say, but something we do, even when it might be intimidating.

That’s the approach I’ve tried to show throughout this campaign: standing up for our values, challenging injustice, and collaborating across our movement. Working with my fellow presidential candidate to stand up for the rights of our trans and non-binary members following the changes to quota rules this week is the most recent example of that. 

Since launching my campaign, I’ve travelled the length and breadth of Britain meeting swathes of members in person, online and at Federal, Scottish and Welsh Conferences. 

I’ve been inspired meeting our council leaders, hearing about how we are delivering for residents in their patches, and seen the courageous fight our teams are putting up in places like West Northamptonshire where we are challenging the Reform council day-in-day-out. 

I’ve listened to these experiences. I’ve heard some frustrations about what support is currently missing and, more positively, about our hopes for our future. 

I am inspired by our collective determination to make our party stronger, more representative and more ambitious than ever.

To deliver on that shared ambition, I’ll focus on five priorities:

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Josh Babarinde

Trans and non-binary Liberal Democrats – I stand right with you

By Josh Babarinde | Tue 28th October 2025 - 12:00 pm

All presidential and vice presidential candidates were offered an additional piece given the importance of and interest in the announcement on diversity quotas.

So many of us in LGBT+ community – and countless allies, too – feared that the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year would challenge the dignity and identity of trans and non-binary people across our country.

Shortly after the ruling, I insisted on meeting the Supreme Court Justices following the judgement and made it clear to them just how much trauma, pain and uncertainty has been created by it among our trans and non-binary community.

It is gut-wrenching to see this reverberate through our party, particularly in the last 24 hours, and to have spent yesterday speaking with some of our trans and non-binary members who feel disillusionment and despair.

As a liberal party, with equity and inclusion fundamental to our values, we all have a duty to challenge affronts to the dignity of trans and non-binary people, and to defend their rightful place in our movement.

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Posted in Op-eds, Party policy and internal matters and Party Presidency | Tagged , , and | 13 Comments
Josh Babarinde

Josh Babarinde writes: Why I’m standing to be Party President

By Josh Babarinde | Fri 25th July 2025 - 12:04 pm

In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature (like this one) plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign.

Populists are on the march across Britain.

Reform are surging on the basis of exploiting people’s fears and offering snake oil solutions for their own political gain.

The Conservatives – still a formidable opponent of ours – have become little more than a Farage tribute act.

And Labour are increasingly dancing to this dark tune; Starmer’s “island of strangers” speech was the tip of the iceberg.

It is clear that our country cannot rely on anyone else to credibly fight back against the division, pessimism and envy polluting our politics.

And our communities cannot rely on anyone else to boldly fight for liberal values of liberty, equality, community, inclusion, internationalism, environmentalism, and so much more.

That job falls to us.

The Liberal Democrats must be the first and last line of defence against populism.

I’m standing to be our next President to ensure that our party has the energy, focus, and ambition to step up to this fight – at the ballot box and beyond – at such a pivotal moment in our national story.

To do that, and to win elections everywhere, we’ve got to bring people in, build them up and get things done. In particular, we must:

  1. Empower party members to win

I’ll work with ALDC and our Campaigns Team to ensure every member is equipped with the campaign tools and networks they need to challenge populism on the ground.

We know that Lib Dem community politics inoculates our communities against division.

  1. Diversify our party

We need to better reflect the communities we’re ambitious to serve.

I’ll work with the Lib Dem Campaign for Race Equality, Racial Diversity Campaign, Lib Dem Women, Campaign for Gender Balance, the Lib Dem Disability Association, LGBT+ Lib Dems, Young Liberals, and others to craft a strategy to drive greater diversity at all levels in our party, as per the GE2024 review.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 13 Comments
Josh Babarinde

Terrorising the traumatised: the Tories have a weak and wicked approach to crime

By Josh Babarinde | Wed 14th August 2019 - 12:34 pm

Twice in as many weeks, this government has committed to making would-be offenders “literally feel terror” in an effort to look tough on violent crime. The country eagerly awaits the Home Secretary’s Tory power pose to accompany this policy.

The truth is, the Tories have gone soft on crime. A tough policy is one that works – but their approach of inciting fear among those at-risk of offending simply isn’t an effective means of reducing crime. Reams of academic evidence and my work as a frontline practitioner make that very clear.

Project Terror starts with turbocharging police stop and search powers to scare people at risk of violent offending out of carrying weapons. Aside from being unfair and unjust, this is an ineffective policy. Priti Patel’s own Home Office team “found no statistically significant crime-reduction effect… from the increase in weapons searches.”

Next on the list is building 10,000 new prison cells to banish criminals to. Again, the government’s own figures tell us that more of the same will not work: nearly two in three ex-offenders re-offend within one year of release from our prisons.

Project Terror is doomed because it’s based on the flawed assumption that the ‘choice’ to offend is always as shallow as Boris’s choice between foie gras and a pig’s head on the Bullingdon Club menu.

Too many young ex-offenders we work with at Cracked It had perceived no choice but to offend before they started working with us. Faced with an education system that fails to equip them with the skills they need to access employment, and a benefits system that locks their families in poverty, they felt backed into crime’s corner to generate an income. Young ex-offenders tell us about how they would deal drugs, sleeping with a knife for safety, to make money that they’d secretly slip into mum’s handbag to help pay the bills.

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