LGBT+ Lib Dems co-chairs Charley Hasted and Luke Allan have issued a statement concerning distressing incidents that took place at Federal Conference in Brighton. 

At the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Autumn 2024, a volunteer for Liberal Voice for Women harassed two members of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on two separate occasions. The volunteer in question admitted waiting until our members, one of whom was an autistic woman less than half his age, were alone on our exhibition stall to target them. We are pleased that a disciplinary panel recognised his behaviour for what it was and upheld a complaint against him.

We are disappointed, though, that when his behaviour was raised with members of LVfW- including members of their committee, both at the time and after the fact, our concerns about this man’s behaviour towards a vulnerable woman were roundly dismissed by them.

For an organisation that claims to care about women’s safety, it is hypocritical in the extreme for them to dismiss concerns about a man’s behaviour towards a woman being harassing or intimidatory, when the basis for their dismissal seems only to be his age and/or that they agree with the opinions that led to him harassing our members.

LGBT+ Lib Dems stands firmly behind the principle that targeted harassment of the kind our members experienced is unacceptable, regardless of the age or views of the person doing it. Moreover, we have been consistently clear that we expect our volunteers to behave decently towards all attendees at Conference, and have worked productively with Party Leadership at various levels to ensure this is the case, and try and minimise conflict.

As Co-Chairs of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats and with the support of our Executive Committee, we have taken the unusual step of producing this statement as we are tired of LVfW trying to claim we oppose their attendance at Conference simply because of their beliefs. We oppose their attendance at Conference because of their actions, and in this case the actions of someone they allowed to volunteer for them. They not only apparently failed to insist on a decent standard of behaviour from their volunteers, but then defended his harassing and intimidatory behaviour instead of offering any apology or insisting he take any accountability for his actions.

We are now in the unheard-of and unprecedented position of having to request additional support from the Party in order to ensure the safety of our volunteers at our Spring Federal Conference in Harrogate. We are, however, pleased to be working with our Party Leadership to try and ensure exhibitors in the future can be better held accountable for the behaviour of those that represent them.

LVfW are entitled to hold whatever beliefs they like, even if we don’t think they match the values of non-discrimination our Party holds. We are proud to be Liberal Democrats: our party has a fantastic record of supporting LGBT+ rights, from the Wolfenden report to the abolition of Section 28, implementing Same-Sex Marriage, and more recent efforts and policies to support our community. Liberal Democrats have taken these positions because they align with our values as a party: we in LGBT+ Lib Dems believe that our actions are the best expression of our values. In this context, we think the actions of Liberal Voice for Women speak for themselves.

Editor’s Note:

On a happier note, we can take comfort from the fact that the very same Lib Dem Conference expressed its solidarity with members of the trans community.  We are confident that we will see the same positive, cheerful, upbeat solidarity in Harrogate.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings