This afternoon, the party’s highest dispute resolution panel met to discuss the ruling issued by the Returning Officer on 27th October, prior to the ballots opening in the federal party elections.

Lucas North had appealed to the Federal Appeals Panel and after the hearing this joint statement was issued:

We were pleased to attend the FAP hearing today on the rules around the internal elections.

The FAP made clear that the rules as written in the constitution need to be reviewed by members as they can no longer be implemented as originally intended following the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland and therefore there is a lack of clarity.

The FAP has ruled that parts of quotas should be disapplied on a case by case basis, as the election count proceeds, in order to avoid discrimination. This requires a different approach to that originally set out by the RO; it means that quotas will apply as written in the constitution until they lead to a breach of the Equality Act 2010 in any individual circumstance.

 

The party will seek immediate legal and technical advice on how to implement this at an operational level.

While this does not affect the Presidential & Vice Presidential count, there may be delays to committee counts while we get this right.

We will get more information when FAP issues its full judgement.

Our understanding on this is that this won’t hold up the president/vice president contests as they are single places, but it might be a while before we get the committee results.

Joint statement by Chairs of official diversity AOs and presidential candidates

A few minutes ago the Chairs of LGBT+ Lib Dems, Lib Dem Women, Lib Dem Disability Association, Lib Dems Campaign for Race Equality, Young Liberals, and Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates issued the joint statement below:

The purpose of this statement is to report back on the meeting that we secured on 7th November with the barrister who issued the legal advice underpinning the party’s decision on changing the diversity quotas for the federal elections, and to tell you what we collectively have agreed to do following that meeting.

As the respective Chairs of the Affiliated Organisations represented on the Federal People and Development Committee – and Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates – we were and remain appalled at the decision to change quotas rules for internal Federal Elections on 27th October – after nominations had closed, and the day before voting opened – which has unacceptably undermined the dignity and inclusion of trans and non-binary members in our party. They deserve so much better than this, not least because our quota system has historically been used to facilitate inclusion.

The barrister, a King’s Counsel (KC) who has a track record of fighting for the rights of trans and non-binary people, fully answered our relentless questioning for approximately 90 minutes.

In summary, we understood from the barrister that their legal opinion was that:
– The former quota rules were not compliant with the Supreme Court judgement.
– The party was therefore legally required to change the quota regime to give effect to the Supreme Court judgement
– Candidates had entered into a contract with the party upon being nominated that explicitly involved the use of quotas (under Articles 2.5 and 2.6 in the constitution).
– Wider changes to the quota system (whether by the Returning Officer, or by members at a Conference) in the context of this ‘contract’, given that candidates were already nominated, would likely constitute a breach of contract
– The option of greatest legal viability remaining was therefore to retain the quota system but refashion it to reflect the Supreme Court judgement
– Wider options would be legally viable for future Federal Elections, so long as changes were made before the ‘contract’ with candidates was established.
The party made its decision about the quota system for these Federal Elections on the basis of the opinion described above.

Our view, in light of this, is that had the party and Returning Officer taken action to address the implications of the Supreme Court judgement sooner (the ruling was 7 months ago in April 2025), the KC would have advised that more options would have been available.

It is unacceptable that the party’s decision to change the quota rules was left until after nominations closed (and therefore after the ‘contract’ with candidates was initiated). The delay appears to have been completely avoidable. A full review must take place to understand the reasons for this delay, and to identify cast-iron steps to ensure that the party’s apparent options are not restricted by such significant failures ever again.

While we are doing the job of reporting back on what we were told in the meeting with the KC, we are aware that members are exploring alternative legal opinions on this matter, and that an appeal has been submitted to the party’s Federal Appeals Panel. The situation may change as a result of those two things and we will closely follow efforts by members to test alternative legal opinions on this matter.

Our next steps

We are clear that this meeting was only the first step of a journey.
The Affiliated Organisations represented at the meeting and the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, are fully committed to the policy and principles of the “Free To Be Who You Are” motion that members overwhelmingly passed at Spring Conference 2025.

In that stead, we will work together to help develop a solution that honours our moral, legal and liberal obligations to protect the rights of trans and non-binary people – and all members.

In terms of constitutional next steps, the AOs and candidates agreed in the session to meet again before Christmas to begin working on a Conference motion in pursuit of this.

In terms of political and legislative next steps, we have requested to collectively meet with our party’s Women and Equalities Spokesperson to explore what options we can take to properly honour the liberty and dignity of trans and non-binary people.
Each AO represented will respectively bring proposals and ideas to these meetings, based on their engagement with members, and may communicate the development of these accordingly.

We are also concerned about the impact of the decision to change the quotas on trans and non-binary candidates, and about the level of attack that they may come under when the results of the elections are known. We therefore have pushed the party to commit to the creation an online hub that signposts candidates to critical resources to support their wellbeing. We have also discussed how we can better facilitate the provision of peer support for candidates, especially trans and non-binary candidates.

We thank all those who have supported us to hold the party to account for its actions here, and will continue to fight for a society where no-one – including trans and non-binary people – is enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity, and where we are all able to live in a fair, free and open society with equality and community at its heart.

LGBT+ Lib Dems have put out an additional statement:

The Co-Chair of the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats recently had the opportunity to meet with the barrister who issued the legal advice underpinning the Returning Officer’s decision to make the party’s gender quotas trans-exclusionary.

The KC had advised that, after nominations for the internal elections closed, no legal avenue would remain available for either keeping gender quotas trans-inclusive or suspending them. Other legal experts take a quite different view, and this raises concerns about the party’s position.

LGBT+ Liberal Democrats:
• Thank the candidates and AOs that stand alongside us in this struggle.
• Believe that it is completely unacceptable that the decision to modify gender quotas was delayed until after the close of nominations, restricting the party’s options according to their own legal advice.
• Believe that UK law must be changed to restore the rights of trans people, in line with the original intent of the Equality Act 2010, as described by its drafters, and in line with the Goodwin v UK (2002) decision.
• Welcome efforts by trans and non-binary members and their allies to test the party’s position via the party’s internal appeals processes, and, if necessary, through legal action. We await the full detail of today’s FAP decision.
• Will work across the party over the coming weeks and months to develop constitutional proposals that secure trans-inclusive gender quotas and ensure trans-exclusionary gender quotas can never again be imposed.

LGBT+ Liberal Democrats remain committed to fighting to secure the liberty and dignity of trans and non-binary people in the UK, and to fighting to uphold the will of Conference within our own party.