I joined the Liberal Democrats six years ago. I was 16, I’d just finished my GCSEs and I wanted to make a difference. I believe in Liberalism, and the party’s preamble spoke to me. After all, who wouldn’t want a free, fair and open society? Well, as it would seem, quite a lot of people.
But nevertheless, I campaigned in elections during 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 3 times in 2024 and again in 2025 and I’ll continue in 2026 for my local election campaign. We lost most of those elections. All 5 of the ones I stood in we lost, which wasn’t too surprising. Throughout all of this I kept going not because I thought it was the best way to spend my Saturdays. Nor for my step counter. Nor because I wanted fame and fortune.
I did it because I am a Liberal, and I want to see Liberals elected. It’s the same reason why, despite being asked 5 times, I haven’t defected to the Green party. They aren’t liberal, and I am. But sadly, this year has really tested my patience and made me question just how much the party shares my Liberal values.
As I’m sure we all know by now, in April of this year the UK supreme court ripped up 15 years of precedent to change the way we interpret the Equality Act. It was a shocking decision that has put equality and human rights back 30 years. This to me sounded like something the Liberal Democrats should be leading on. Pledging to change the law and clarify what the supreme court muddled. Yet, I saw my own party leader welcoming a decision that stripped me of my dignity and my rights. That’s an incredibly distressing and demotivating thing to hear.
Nevertheless, I assumed it was a mix up of Comms and soon met with our party spokespeople to ask what happened and what the party is doing to ensure this doesn’t stand. I thought these meetings were productive, and yet since April at every opportunity Ed has dropped the ball when it comes to trans rights. At a time where we needed a leader, Ed just hasn’t delivered. It’s a stain on our party that has historically led on LGBTQ+ equality to now abandon those principles. We should be better than this, and we should be leading the UK’s conversation. Not abandoning our principles for fear of upsetting the media, or those with deep pockets that don’t share our values.
Then, we have the most recent disgraceful capitulation. The party changed its quotas against the will of conference. It could have suspended them, the Scottish Greens did this with no issues. We should have too, but the leadership still made the active choice to choose the option opposed to people’s dignity, equality and privacy.
If we refuse to stand up for our Liberal values, how can we call ourselves Liberal? And if we override the democratic decisions of conference, how can we call ourselves Democrats? And if even we can’t stand up for what we believe in, how can we expect voters to trust us?
* Rebecca Jones is the secretary of Lib Dem Women and was a local election candidate in Islington.
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13 Comments
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I fully agree with your stance here, Rebecca, and your conclusion is spot on.
Hear hear, Rebecca. “Trans rights are human rights” is not just a slogan, but a fact. If we abandon trans people, we have no right to call ourselves liberals. We would be cowards in the fight for equality and equity.
It’s a horrible feeling, that your Party has betrayed you. I have felt that way over this and other topics and certainly find myself less motivated as a result.
I think the way that this issue has been dealt with is clumsy in drafting, timing and comms. However it is wrong to say that conference voted not to change the quotas. On the urging of some activists Conference voted to not discuss changing the quotas, to have no debate and no vote on this topic. Those are different things.
If a debate was allowed, we could have discussed this with a view to reaching an outcome that protected groups and aligns with the Equality Act. The absence of this left the Party in an impossible place, bound to displease someone with whatever step it took. Those who led the charge on ‘move to next business’ should take some accountability for putting the Party in this position, and leadership should look at how they created such a jumble from it.
Hopefully we can all agree that the Party must operate within the law, even if it chooses to campaign to change that law.
Hopefully one lesson learned from this fiasco is that we must consider these things with our eyes wide open, with understanding of the law and the consequences of our decisions, rather than bury our head in the sand and pretend we can treat equality law like a selection box.
Completely agree. Feeling the same way. Thank you for putting it so eloquently.
Very well said Rebecca! It seems like a no-brainer to just suspend the quotas instead of going against Conference’s wishes, and even more importantly, instead of throwing trans people under the bus. What on earth is going on!!
I’m not sure we are living up to our values in national terms right now. Some of our MPs are, but I’m really disappointed with the leadership’s capitulation on this, and recent events have made this worse. I don’t know if it’s because we are trying to woo liberal conservatives, but even if is, the liberal bit needs to be paramount.
Good thoughts Rebecca, a lot of people are standing beside you.
Completely agree on this. Thank you for writing.
Rebecca, I totally understand and share your anger.
I think the vast majority of Lib Dems are with you and stand with you. We see that at Conference every single time the anti trans people try anything on. They are always heavily defeated. It is incomprehensible that the party has given them what they want against the will of Conference.
I promise you we will get there, we will make things better and we will not stand for the horrendous discrimination trans people are facing.
You are one of our brightest talents and I hope you know how much you are loved by so many people.
Do party members believe in the rule of law or not? Or does it not apply when we don’t like the ruling? As that road gives a green light to others who disagree with laws that we may find necessary and just. We will then have no moral authority to criticise them.
The solution is to get parliament to change the law and overrule the Supreme Court as parliament is sovereign.
Completely agree, Rebecca. This might be the last straw for me; it’s certainly very close. Two additional thoughts:
1. There might be times when the party needs to follow uncomfortable legal advice. I wouldn’t mind that so much if, at the same time, the leadership loudly and publicly protested: “we have to follow this law but we strongly believe that the law is wrong and will do everything in our power to get it changed”. But I’ve heard no hint of that. As you say, every time the leadership has a chance to robustly defend us, they fail to take that chance.
2. We should absolutely NOT be pushing for the proposed new EHRC guidance to be published! It is already facing pushback and legal challenges from many directions, and will make life actively worse for trans people. We should aim to delay it as much as possible, in the hope that it is eventually dropped.
An excellent and well-written piece, Rebecca, especially the last paragraph which sets out what needs to be fixed. Urgently.
The Party’s policy is absolutely clear about what the law needed to be amended to say when the SC judgment landed. However, the party leadership has failed to articulate this. Now we have a bigger problem. Conference has not only set the policy, but has twice, overwhelmingly, dismissed attempts to mangle the constitution by a tiny minority of people who oppose equality.
It is clear that the quotas decision needs to be reversed, before constitutional levers are used to force the issue.
Rebecca, very well said. I absolutely share your views for deeply personal reasons and have been considering my position very carefully in the last days in terms of my continued membership. I spoke openly on my Facebook about my feelings no matter how this might impact my own, local electoral aspirations. I have no political home elsewhere. I don’t think the legal battle is over in this respect and I suspect it’s why the government is dragging its heels on the new guidance from an organisation which, rather than enhance and protect our rights, seems to take any opportunity to attack our community. I feel incredibly angry that a small minority of members – who have every right to their views – seek to emotionally blackmail leadership into ignoring the democratically voted on will of conference and members.
Well said Rebecca.
The party should have been clear that whilst we would abide by the Court ruling we disagreed with it and would be looking to support efforts to overrule it or for parliament to clarify the law so the Equalities act protecta trans women as women as it clearly was intended to do.
We then could have said that we will have to suspend quotas for internal elections whilst the ruling was in place unless other case law changed the situation as to do otherwise would descriminate against and risk publicly outing our Trans members