Category Archives: News

Mary Reid

Victory Rally in Tiverton

By Mary Reid | Fri 24th June 2022 - 10:58 am

You can watch this live (or on catchup) from 11am today on BBC News or Sky News.

“It’s time to show Boris the door”

 

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Tiverton and Honiton: “It’s time for Boris Johnson to go” – Foord speech in full

By Andy Boddington | Fri 24th June 2022 - 7:32 am

In a calm, reasoned and powerful acceptance speech, newly elected Lib Dem MP for Tiverton and Honiton has a message for Boris Johnson:

Tonight, the people of Tiverton & Honiton have spoken for Britain. They’ve sent a loud and clear message: It’s time for Boris Johnson to go. And go now.

Ours is a great country and there’s no greater part of it than Devon. But every day Boris Johnson clings to office, he brings further shame, chaos and neglect…

I also have a simple message for those Conservative MPs propping up this failing Prime Minister: The Liberal Democrats are coming.

Foord said the cost of living crisis is hitting hard, including in Devon.

He also paid tribute to Ed Davey for his leadership: “You believed from the start that this result was possible. You rallied our troops and led from the front.” The contrast with Boris Johnson who shied away from meeting voters in Tiverton and Honiton was left unstated.

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NewsHound

Labour takes Wakefield

By NewsHound | Fri 24th June 2022 - 4:51 am

Simon Lightwood has won the Wakefield by-election overturning the Conservative majority of 3,358 to deliver a 4,925 majority for Labour. He won 13,166 votes, while the Conservative Nadeem Ahmed received 8,241 votes.

This will be cheering news for Keir Starmer, who has been recently taken flak from his own MPs for being boring. It also begins the process of retaking seats in the Red Wall lost to the Tories in 2019.

Our thanks to Jamie Needle for offering Wakefield voters the option to vote Liberal Democrat.

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NewsHound

Tiverton and Honiton: The results in full

By NewsHound | Fri 24th June 2022 - 4:39 am

Full results of Tiverton and Honiton by-election which saw a Liberal Democrat gain from Conservatives.

Electorate 81,661; Turnout 42,591 (52.16%, -19.71%).

  • Richard Foord (Lib Dem): 22,537 (52.91%, +38.14%)
  • Helen Hurford (Conservative): 16,393 (38.49%, -21.72%)
  • Liz Pole (Labour): 1,562 (3.67%, -15.88%)
  • Gill Westcott (Green): 1,064 (2.50%, -1.34%)
  • Andy Foan (Reform): 481 (1.13%)
  • Ben Walker (UKIP): 241 (0.57%, -1.06%)
  • Jordan Donoghue-Morgan (Heritage): 167 (0.39%)
  • Frankie Rufolo (For Britain): 146 (0.34%)

The Lib Dem majority was 6,144 (14.43%).

The swing from Conservative to Lib Dem was 29.93%.

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Tiverton and Honiton: Lib Dems call victory

By Andy Boddington | Fri 24th June 2022 - 3:03 am

3.00am. The count is still underway. The result not declared. But the Lib Dems are claiming victory in Tiverton and Honiton. Helen Hurford is reported to have locked herself in a room to avoid the media.

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Mary Reid

While you are waiting …

By Mary Reid | Fri 24th June 2022 - 1:40 am

While you are waiting for news from Tiverton & Honiton we can also offer you some encouragement from two other elections, on top of the excellent result in Highley in Shropshire.

First, from the London borough of Kingston upon Thames. Last month Lib Dems had a resounding victory by winning 41 of the 45 council seats. But the contest in one ward, New Malden Village, was deferred after the death of an independent candidate just a few days before polling day, leaving the three seats still vacant.

This created a rather odd campaigning environment – our squeeze message evaporated as there was no danger of another party taking control. Predictably, opposition literature emphasised the fact that people could now abandon tactical voting and vote with their hearts. The other parties also homed in on the very small opposition on the Council, which needed to be strengthened – a fact which had also worried the Lib Dems, as we have always seen Scrutiny as a function of the opposition.

This is traditionally a Conservative facing area, the small Labour representation having been wiped out completely in 2010.

So we are delighted to report that not only did we win all three seats convincingly, but the Conservatives were knocked into third and fourth places by a coalition of Greens and Independents.

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Lib Dems take Highley in Shropshire

By Andy Boddington | Fri 24th June 2022 - 12:34 am

Some good news to begin the night while we wait for the Tiverton and Honiton result.

Congratulations to Mark Williams who takes Lib Dem number of the unitary Shropshire Council to 14, the second largest party. This was a hard fought campaign for a seat the Conservatives wanted to win, after they lost 12% of their seats in the 2021 all up council elections including the then council leader who was ousted by a Lib Dem. Late last year, the Conservatives lost the North Shropshire constituency to Helen Morgan.

Helen was among the large team of campaigners from across Shropshire and beyond that leafleted and canvassed in the constituency from the day the by-election was called after the resignation of an independent councillor.

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The polls open in Tiverton and Honiton, Wakefield and local by-elections

By Andy Boddington | Thu 23rd June 2022 - 7:00 am

It is 7.00am and the polls have opened in the two headline by-elections of today. The Lib Dems have been prioritising their efforts in Tiverton and Honiton in mid-Devon, with hundreds of activists and most of the party’s MPs turning out to deliver leaflets and knock on doors. Labour’s interest of course has been in Wakefield where it hopes to begin taking back the Red Wall seats it lost in 2019.

Both by-elections were triggered by MPs resigned in disgrace.

Keir Starmer has said a victory in Wakefield “could be the birthplace of the next Labour government”. If Labour win, Starmer can face down his critics in the constituency and in the shadow cabinet who describe him as “boring”.

Ed Davey is under no such pressure – the Lib Dems having secured two impressive by-election victories in Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire within just over a year. He has been very active in all the campaigns, including in Tiverton and Honiton. He is also more social and comfortable with voters than Starmer appears to be.

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Mary Reid

On the road

By Mary Reid | Wed 22nd June 2022 - 1:57 pm

Beth Rigby, the Political Editor at Sky News, has been chatting with Ed Davey.

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey: Johnson and Shapps pretend they can’t end the rail strikes. That’s nonsense

By Mary Reid | Wed 22nd June 2022 - 9:54 am

The train strike has already had a devastating impact on businesses and on the general public.

Ed Davey has written an article in The Guardian under the headline: Johnson and Shapps pretend they can’t end the rail strikes. That’s nonsense.

He writes:

The Liberal Democrats are against the rail strikes and if a summer of discontent is not to turn into a winter of discontent and full-on stagflation, ministers must step back from the brink.

The position of lower-paid workers across our country should be at the forefront of ministers’ thinking – not that of the highest earners in the City, whose pay and bonuses the government announced this week would not be limited in any way.

The solution?

The solution to such distressing stories is clear: instead of strikes, there should be dialogue between government ministers and union bosses.

…

Ministers must now clean up their own mess. Liberal Democrats are calling for an emergency Cobra meeting to kickstart a practical compromise and to keep Britain moving.

And here is Christine Jardine (our Treasury spokseperson) telling the BBC what Grant Shapps and the Government should do. It is a national emergency so it would be appropriate for Cobra to meet.

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NewsHound

Neck and neck in Tiverton and Honiton

By NewsHound | Tue 21st June 2022 - 7:47 am

From an “exclusive” by David Parsley in today’s i:

“After speaking with 6,000 constituents in the Devon seat over the weekend, pollsters for the Lib Dems put their candidate Richard Foord on 45 per cent of the vote, level with the Tories’ Helen Hurford.

“This latest survey of voting intentions suggests the Lib Dems have closed the two-point gap between themselves and the Conservatives that existed at the same point last week.”

Richard Foord said:

This by-election is a very close fight between myself and Boris Johnson’s candidate.

David Parsley continues:

“If the Lib Dems do reverse the huge Tory majority, it would be the largest by-election turnaround since Labour won Liverpool Wavertree from the Conservatives in 1935.”

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Paul Heilbron

ALDC by-election report: 17th June

By Paul Heilbron | Fri 17th June 2022 - 3:20 pm

After a post-Local Election lull, we are back on the campaign trail and our weekly insight into all things by-election are back on the agenda.

This week’s by-elections present a very mixed picture. We stood a candidate in all four principal elections, which is a great accolade to the Lib Dem ethos of standing candidates universally, but on the night, there were no victories to speak off. Nevertheless, good campaigns were fought, and progress was made across the board.

Over at Leamington Clarendon in Warwick, we returned our best result of a lacklustre evening. A commendable second-place finish, with an impressive 11.5% vote share increase, on a congested ticket is a fantastic return for Justine Ragany and the local team.

Labour: 1064
Liberal Democrat (Justine Ragany): 612
Conservative: 365
Green: 95
UKIP: 24

Labour HOLD

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Mary Reid

“Mind blowing” errors in pensions

By Mary Reid | Fri 17th June 2022 - 9:53 am

Are you using software on your laptop that dates back to the 1980s? It sounds unlikely, although some standard office applications do go back that far –  a pre-cursor to Word was first launched in 1983 but it has gone through massive development since then. Indeed everyone who uses it is aware of its frequent upgrades and patches.

However it seems the Government is still using software dating from the 1980s which has not been properly maintained and updated. The BBC reports that millions of people have been receiving an incorrect pension for years, because of the failure to update the Pension Strategy Computer System to take account of Graduated Retirement Benefit.

It seems the individual discrepancies may be quite small, with some pensioners being overpaid and others underpaid, but the accumulated impact could be large. And last year a different issue was found with the system which had resulted in substantial underpayments for 134,000 people.

But the truly worrying fact is that this error has been known about for at least 20 years. Apparently the DWP decided it would be too complicated to fix.

Steve Webb – the Lib Dem pensions guru and former Pensions Minister – says:

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NewsHound

Carmichael: Threat to leave ECHR risks breaking Good Friday Agreement

By NewsHound | Thu 16th June 2022 - 8:26 am

Writing in The House yesterday, Alistair Carmichael, Lib Dem Home Affairs and Northern Ireland spokesperson, said:

In less than 24 hours Boris Johnson has gone from pretending to be a defender of the Good Friday Agreement, to threatening to remove the legal underpinnings of peace in Northern Ireland altogether.

Carmichael’s comment came as the prime minister and ministers dropped heavy hints that if the law were to get in the way of Rwanda deportation flights, the government could withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Good Friday Agreement expressly requires the United Kingdom to have the Convention directly enforceable in Northern Ireland.

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Mary Reid

Lib Dem MPs submit Private Members Bills on carers and worker protection

By Mary Reid | Wed 15th June 2022 - 5:44 pm

Of the 460 MPs who entered the ballot for Private Member Bills only 20 were selected. And two of those were Lib Dems – Wendy Chamberlain and Wera Hobhouse.

Unfortunately only the top seven are guaranteed debating time so the others have to hope they can be squeezed in somewhere. Wendy was at position 10, and Wera at 15.

So we should be watching the progress of these two (quoted from Politics Home):

10. Wendy Chamberlain: Carer’s Leave Bill

The Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife is proposing a bill to make provision about unpaid leave for employees with caring responsibilities.

Chamberlain said: “Unpaid carers are the absolute backbone of our society. According to government estimates, there are at least 2.3 million working carers who could be eligible for leave under this bill: a huge number of people who currently receive far too little support.

“This bill will help carers juggle work and care whilst supporting employers to maximise retention and wellbeing. Passing it will be a significant step forwards from all sides.”

And

15. Wera Hobhouse: Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill

This legislation – the unofficial name of which is the Protection from Workplace Harassment Bill – makes provisions about the duties of employers and protection of workers under the Equality Act 2010.

The Liberal Democrat MP for Bath said: “My winning number on the ballot was 461. I chose this because I was the 461st woman to be elected to Parliament. This encouraged me to choose an issue that will tackle violence against women and girls as harassment in the workplace is experienced by 40 per cent of women in the workforce in their career.

“This bill would shift responsibility from the individual to the institution and make employers responsible for protecting their employees. There is no place for harassment anywhere. At a minimum, sexual harassment is experienced by 40 per cent of women in the workforce. It causes various harms, and employers should be morally and legally required to take all reasonable steps to stop harassment from occurring.

“Workplace harassment has no place in our society and this bill will take steps to prevent cases of harassment.”

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NewsHound

Moran: Anything less than a full ban on ‘conversion therapy’ is unacceptable

By NewsHound | Wed 15th June 2022 - 3:40 pm

Writing in Gay Times, Layla Moran has called out those that think being gay is something other than normal and want to convert ‘gay people’ into ‘ordinary people’. Moran wrote:

The LGBTQ+ community is an incredible tapestry of different sexual orientations and gender identities. Each of them is valid and should be celebrated. But practices exist which seek to change, cure, or suppress an LGBTQ+ person’s identity. These practices start from the position that a person expressing an LGBTQ+ identity should be challenged and corrected. They are deliberately harmful and repressive…

Shockingly these practices are still legal in the UK.

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The Voice

Early Bird Discount for Conference ends tomorrow – Register now

By The Voice | Tue 14th June 2022 - 8:08 pm

If you are planning on going to Brighton to Conference from 17-20 September, you have just one day left to register at the Early Bird rate of £75. We would strongly recommend that you do it tonight if you can. The screams you can hear faintly in the distance come from those members of the LDV team who are finding that their previous log-in details don’t work and they have to register all over again.

This Conference gives the Lib Dem family its first chance to get together since Bournemouth in 2019 so it’s worth going for that reason alone.

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The Voice

Grenfell 5th anniversary: Lib Dems call for public enquiry

By The Voice | Tue 14th June 2022 - 12:35 pm

It’s half a decade since we watched in horror as the Grenfell Tower fire took hold. At the time the Government promised that such a tragedy would never happen again, but in England alone, 10,000 buildings are still considered unsafe. Imagine the stress of being trapped in such a building, scared that it could go on fire at any time.

To mark the fifth anniversary, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and peer Kath Pinnock had called for a statutory public enquiry with the power to summon witnesses to give evidence under oath and demand disclosure of any relevant evidence.

Daisy Cooper said:

The horrific events which led to the loss of 72 people five years ago today will never be forgotten.

After the tragedy of Grenfell, this Conservative Government said ‘never again’. Yet five years on, tens of thousands of people are still trapped in homes which aren’t safe and they cannot sell, and lessons have not been learned.

Families living in homes with unsafe cladding and other dangerous fire safety defects are facing unimaginable stress and anxiety while the remediation programme stutters along at a glacial pace.

It’s simply shameful that five years down the line from this tragic disaster, the big changes needed to stop it from happening again simply have not happened.

A separate public inquiry into the Government’s handling of this building safety crisis is frankly long overdue and is nothing less than what those still living in unsafe homes deserve.

Kath Pinnock said:

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The Voice

Layla: Johnson debases the office of PM with NI Protocol Bill

By The Voice | Tue 14th June 2022 - 11:03 am

Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran has said that Boris Johnson is debasing the office of Prime Minister by proposing breaching international law in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. She said:

It’s astounding that at exactly the moment when we should be standing united with our allies in the face of Russia’s aggression, the Conservative Government has decided to ignite a diplomatic firestorm.

“From breaking his own laws at home to attempting to breach international law abroad, Boris Johnson has debased the office of Prime Minister.

“If the Conservatives enact these proposals, they risk starting a trade war with our closest neighbours

…

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NewsHound

Lib Dems call for fuel duty to be cut in more rural areas

By NewsHound | Mon 13th June 2022 - 9:24 am

Liberal Democrats have urged the Government to reduce fuel duty in rural areas, after analysis found that households in more remote areas paid £114 in transport costs each week in the year to March 2020, almost £40 more than those in urban areas.

The Lib Dems want an expansion of the rural fuel duty relief scheme, which is currently offered in a handful of remote areas of the UK, including Scotland islands and other areas, Scilly, and Hawes.

The proposal is to extend the relief to places where “public transport options are limited and drivers are being disproportionately hit by rising fuel prices”. This would include Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Shropshire and rural parts of Wales. The Lib Dems also want the relief to be doubled to 10p a litre.

Reported by the Telegraph and the i, rural affairs spokesman Tim Farron said:

The Government must act now to help rural families on the brink, by expanding the fuel duty relief scheme.

Ministers need to also crack down on the petrol profiteers who are cashing in on people’s misery at the pump.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 13 June 2022 – take a deep breath (and a glass of Sekt) and carry on…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 13th June 2022 - 7:45 am

Dobré ráno! Liberal Democrat Voice is brought to you today from Starý Smokovec, in the Slovak Tatras, where your intrepid Day Editor is spending the day. As befits a member of the Party’s Federal International Relations Committee, I’m on a rail odyssey across the continent, from Stowmarket to here and back (the pretty way). And I’m drinking beer in half-litres…

Slovakia has benefited from its accession to the European Union, with the average Slovak worker earning 70% more than they did twenty years ago. Inward investment has been consistently high, and GDP has risen significantly over that period. This was rather what was envisaged as a result of the 2004 expansion of the European Union into Eastern and Central Europe, with everyone benefiting from a larger single market. It’s galling to hear various Brexiteers suddenly rediscovering their enthusiasm for free trade with our neighbours but think of it as the first baby steps towards a rather better relationship with the European Union.

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Tiverton and Honiton: Hurford comes out of the cold

By Andy Boddington | Sun 12th June 2022 - 6:53 pm

The battle is hotting up in Devon. The Conservative candidate Helen Hurford has this week come out from hiding and has been allowed to speak to the national media. The i has the story.

I couldn’t help raising a smile when Hurford started talking about herself in the third person: “Helen Hurford has a six-point plan to deliver… and she will fight with all the gusto and passion that she has.” That sounds like she was reading from one of her own leaflets or a script from CCHQ, only she had forgotten that it was about her.

In contrast to Hurford’s somewhat stilted comments, Richard Foord comes across as quietly confident. Maybe I am biased, but as this juncture in a by-election we can win, I think we are entitled to be a bit biased.

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NewsHound

Ambulance response targets for life-threatening calls missed in all Devon

By NewsHound | Thu 9th June 2022 - 5:52 pm

Devonlive reports today that the target for ambulances responding to life-threatening calls is now being missed in all of Devon’s seven local districts. Patients in Mid Devon waited an average of over 15 minutes for life-threatening calls in 2021, longer than anywhere else in the county. Category 1 calls cover the most serious incidents such as a cardiac arrest or heavy bleeding and should be responded to within an average of seven minutes.

The average waiting time for Category 2 calls in the county has more than doubled over the past year to 49 minutes, way above the target of 19 minutes.

The data was obtained by the Liberal Democrats from the South West Ambulance Trust through a Freedom of Information request.

Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper called for urgent action from the government to support ambulance services in rural areas like Devon. She said the Lib Dems have set out a rescue plan including more investment in local ambulance services, enabling trusts to bring back community ambulance stations in rural areas and launching a campaign to recruit and retain more paramedics.

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NewsHound

Welsh Lib Dems call for end to Cardiff Airport £210m black hole

By NewsHound | Thu 9th June 2022 - 1:46 pm

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Labour Government to outline plans to end what it describes as Cardiff Airport’s blackhole on taxpayers’ money.

Figures released by the Welsh Government yesterday show that passenger numbers at the airport continued to decline in 2021 from 2022, despite less travel restriction being in place. According to the data released, passenger numbers declined by 44 per cent in 2021 to 123,000.

The Welsh Government bought Cardiff Airport in 2013, despite former Assembly Member Eluned Parrott and the Welsh Liberal Democrats warning of the massive risk the purchase posed to Welsh taxpayers.

Since then, passenger numbers have never met the Welsh Government’s own targets and the airport was valued as just £15 million despite being purchased for £52 million in 2013.

Overall, over £210 million of Welsh taxpayers’ money has now been spent on the airport with various Government loans, cash injections and debt forgiveness being introduced. The airport’s high expenditure has caused the Welsh Liberal Democrats to label the project Welsh Labour’s biggest white elephant. The party also argues that the Welsh Government owning and subsidising an airport is incompatible with its climate goals.

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Mary Reid

Gove approves gas drilling alongside Surrey Hills

By Mary Reid | Wed 8th June 2022 - 5:22 pm

Surrey Hills is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and yet this Government, in the person of Michael Gove, has just given planning permission for oil and gas drilling adjacent to it.

The report by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities states that “there are significant harms to the character and appearance of the landscape from the proposal,” and that it would “degrade the quality of the setting of the AONB.” But it dismisses these concerns and claims they are outweighed by the benefits of gas exploration.

Where to begin? Are we or are we not in the middle of a climate emergency? Oil and gas drilling should not be permitted even in the ugliest of industrial landscapes, but to allow it here, in a precious and unique landscape, is simply vandalism.

Ed also said:

The best way to improve energy security is to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, by investing in renewables and insulating people’s homes. Instead this Conservative government is trashing our environment by allowing oil drilling in green fields for years to come.

He is joined in condemnation by our two Parliamentary candidates in the area:

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NewsHound

Lib Dems to table motion of no confidence in Johnson (updated)

By NewsHound | Tue 7th June 2022 - 10:19 am

Early this afternoon, Lib Dem MPs will table an Early Day Motion of no confidence in the prime minister Boris Johnson.

Earlier Davey tweeted:

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Mark Valladares

Johnson survives… for now… Liberal Democrats respond

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th June 2022 - 9:17 pm

211-148 does not make for a secure mandate, especially given the scale of the payroll vote. But, at least for the time being, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson continues as Prime Minister.

Liberal Democrat President Mark Pack probably best sums up the outcome from a Liberal Democrat perspective;

Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper, expresses what many will be thinking;

Tim Farron makes the point that Boris doesn’t believe in the same rules that the rest of us do;

But whilst there is almost certainly political advantage to be had, the country will continue to suffer under his chaotic, dishonest leadership. Anyone who believes in good …

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The Voice

That Tory memo calling for “Conservative Corbyn” Johnson to go

By The Voice | Mon 6th June 2022 - 9:45 am

Over the weekend, a memo circulated among Tory backbenchers setting out the case for Boris Johnson to go. It is striking how scared the Conservatives have become of the Lib Dems, with the memo writers predicting that we could take seats with Conservative majorities of up to 20,000 in the Blue Wall.

The memo writers also suggest that if Johnson survives by a slim majority, he will call an early general election to restore his personal mandate.

We should make the Conservatives paranoia a reality by ensuring we win in Tiverton and Honiton. Please help this weekend if you can. We must ensure that Richard Foord is elected on 25 June and drive home the message that the Tories are not fit to govern. There are both volunteer activities in the constituency and regular Maraphone sessions.

The full Tory memo is below.

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Mark Valladares

It’s on! Conservative MPs to vote on Boris’s future this evening

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th June 2022 - 8:23 am

Well, that didn’t take long…

So, what is a good result for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, how much of a margin does he need to feel safe? And what does it mean for the Opposition parties?

Here’s what Ed Davey has to say;

Every Conservative MP must do the right thing and kick out this dishonest Prime Minister from Number 10.

There is simply no excuse for backing Boris Johnson. He broke the law and partied while millions of people did the right thing and followed the rules during the pandemic, even when it meant being unable to see their loved ones.

…

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NewsHound

Carmichael: SNP’s selfishness over windfall tax shows they are not a progressive, centre-left party

By NewsHound | Sat 4th June 2022 - 4:47 pm

Writing in The Scotsman yesterday, Alistair Carmichael said:

Kirsty Blackman MP, speaking on the BBC earlier this week, made clear the SNP’s outrage that North Sea oil and gas profits might be used to support the wrong sort of struggling family – that is, struggling families who live south of the River Tweed.

Scotland’s self-proclaimed “progressive” party of government has decided that solidarity and support for hard-up people across the country during the current crisis is a bridge too far. In doing so, the SNP have reminded us all of a fundamental truth – nationalism and progressive politics simply do not mix.

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